Walgreens has long been one of my favorite places to shop. I have always liked the pharmacy, and the way the store is layed out, the decent selection of cheap sunglasses, cassette tapes (yes), and especially the cool Arizona tee shirts they have (don’t ask….I like representing). So now that Walgreens is rolling out a new wellness program for customers with diabetes, I feel even better about spending my money there. Of course the fact that they are one of the few chains left that are not owned by Wal Mart doesn’t hurt either.
The program is going to be called Walgreens Optimal Wellness. Pharmacists will educate, coach and consult with type 2 diabetics on disease management. This is a great idea because new diabetics need all the information they can get, and pharmacists have been my secret information providers for years.
They are not doctors, but pharmacists probably know more about the drugs and side effects than your doctor does! One of my pharmacists, Andy, was the one who warned me not to chop my glipizide in half (my doctor told me to!) I did what the doctor said and almost went seriously hypo! The pills had an extended release coating on them and when I broke the pill, the drug was just being dumped into my system at once. Who told me? A pharmacist. I think I have made my point, Pharmacists are a hidden resource that should get way more credit.
The program is launching this month in Phoenix, Oklahoma City, and two other cities. Walgreens hopes to go national with this program. They are also going to be adding consults for some other diseases.
Customers will be eligible for between 4 to 6 consultations a year. The Pharmacist will contact the customers doctor following each session.
The cost of these consultations is unknown at this time, but It looks like employers and insurers will be paying for some of it.
Most type 2 diabetics get only a half an hour of information about the disease from their doctor a year on average. I know this to be true from personal experience. The fact that you can get an actual sit down with a pharmacist/nurse practitioner and get good information about diabetes at Walgreens is a great improvement.
I don’t need to remind any of you that diabetes is costing over 130 billion a year, and is a painful, emotionally draining and all around awful disease. It is because of this that I get excited when I see something like this. Educating people about diabetes, and more importantly diabetes prevention is a passion of mine. If we only knew what to do, and how to do it, we could stay healthy and avoid all the terrible things that can happen with diabetes.
Walgreens also has a free diabetes magazine, have you seen it? I think it is called Diabetes and You or something. I actually found a good recipe in there once.
So look out for the “Walgreens Optimal Wellness” program in your city soon. I live in Phoenix, so I will definitely check it out and post my findings.
Not all news is bad news.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/chi-wed-diabetes-wag-0113-jan13,0,5495872.story
Tags: diabetes walgreens, optimal wellness program, walgreens diabetes store
