Spotlighting Our Services: Pharmacy Services
As Retail Business Services -- the services company of Ahold Delhaize USA -- continues to grow and evolve to support retailers on their omnichannel journeys, our teams are evolving too. This summer, we’re highlighting department leaders and their teams in the Spotlighting Our Services series.
This week, we spoke with John McGrath, Vice President of Pharmacy Services, about how he and his 43 teammates are providing innovative solutions for more than 700 Ahold Delhaize USA brand pharmacies. Leveraging brand size and scale, this team supports prescription sales annually for the organization, from filling more than 51 million prescriptions a year (adjusted to 30-day supplies) and negotiating insurance contracts to purchasing medications and launching new omnichannel and clinical services.
“We help the brands buy all those drugs that sit on the shelves back behind that pharmacy counter. We also help them price all those drugs,” said John. “Another thing we do is help them fill those prescriptions in the software they use to make the labels that you see on your bottle.”
Pharmacy is a highly regulated industry, and John’s team is responsible for monitoring regulators, boards, and government affairs so the brands remain in compliance with updates and requirements.
Pharmacy Services also helps drive our Connected Customer strategy and provides solutions for the brands with focus on service development and innovation. Recent achievements include launching prescription-delivery services to accelerate convenience for customers and sales for the brands, as well as creating an online appointment-scheduling tool allowing customers to virtually schedule COVID-19 vaccine appointments. The team is working to expand the scheduling tool to host more services moving forward, including flu shot reservations and future in-person testing services for COVID-19 antibodies, diabetes, cholesterol and other biometric screenings.
Pharmacy Services additionally continues to guide the organization’s vaccine response to the COVID-19 pandemic. From securing a partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) so the brands could receive and administer the vaccine to developing clinical protocols and facilitating required data reporting, John says he has never been more proud of his team and their performance during such a critical time for the company and its communities.