Walgreens frontier program

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wagrxm2000

Walgreens enthusiast. Called the peak in Bitcoin.
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Received some new initiative this week. Apparently Walgreens will now concentrate on the customer instead of hitting metrics or earning a dollar. Not sure if its rolled out anywhere yet but I'm interested in seeing more about it.

Walgreens has already lowered the amount of metrics just showing how horrible it must be to work for cvs.

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and yet the majority of WAG will still be understaff
 
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What metrics did they nix?


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Nothing has been announced yet. From what I read it sounds like other areas might have started already.
 
From what we were told at a recent RxM meeting, is that Frontier is currently being tested in certain markets. Basically, it's about changing the philosophy of management and leadership. Corporate wants to manage and lead from the bottom-up, instead of traditional corporate models of top-down. We were told that DM's, RVP's and Corporate will seriously consider store-level input, feedback and specifically customer's feedback. That's the overall ideology of Frontier, specific details, changes and transformations are still trickling out.
 
So in other words, what the grocery store pharmacies have done for years?
 
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From what we were told at a recent RxM meeting, is that Frontier is currently being tested in certain markets. Basically, it's about changing the philosophy of management and leadership. Corporate wants to manage and lead from the bottom-up, instead of traditional corporate models of top-down. We were told that DM's, RVP's and Corporate will seriously consider store-level input, feedback and specifically customer's feedback. That's the overall ideology of Frontier, specific details, changes and transformations are still trickling out.

Pretty much this. We'll see if they actually do it though.
 
It sounds like what is happening is a leader is going to look at a metric, they will ask customers what they think is reasonable then ask the techs (not rxm) what they think they could do to improve. So for example wait times, what do customers think is reasonable then check if the pharmacy is achieving the wait time. If not how can they improve.

Instead of telling the staff they are asking the staff.
 
nothing will change...this is just new rhetoric for old rules. although, I do hope there is less emphasize on some of the metrics that had rolled out 2-3 years prior.
 
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double post
 
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From what we were told at a recent RxM meeting, is that Frontier is currently being tested in certain markets. Basically, it's about changing the philosophy of management and leadership. Corporate wants to manage and lead from the bottom-up, instead of traditional corporate models of top-down. We were told that DM's, RVP's and Corporate will seriously consider store-level input, feedback and specifically customer's feedback. That's the overall ideology of Frontier, specific details, changes and transformations are still trickling out.

In other words, what CVS used to be..... Circa 2001
 
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So for example wait times, what do customers think is reasonable...

If the customers think 5 minutes if reasonable, does that mean the new wait time will be changed to 5 minutes for Frontier stores? Most customers will want the wait time to be as short as possible, right?
 
If the customers think 5 minutes if reasonable, does that mean the new wait time will be changed to 5 minutes for Frontier stores? Most customers will want the wait time to be as short as possible, right?

Well, yeah. And sure 5 minutes IS reasonable if:

1) there are no other customers in the store and the phone doesn't ring
2) the patient has their insurance card with them
3) the insurance card the patient has with them is actually their current card (nothing like calling an insurance and going through the prompts just to be told the patient's ins expired 2 years ago)
4) the patient does NOT pull out several discount cards and request you to check them all for the best price
5) the patient only has 1 prescription, not several
6) the prescription is a common, acute use, non-controlled, generic drug that won't require an insurance PA, special ordering, or checking against PMP.
7) the prescription is actually written correctly & legibly, with standard dosing
8) the patient doesn't interrupt you every 30 seconds to remind you that s/he is feeling really bad and really needs their medication quick and that they already had to wait 6 hours in the ER...
9) the doctor signed and/or printed her/his name legibly, and included their NPI/DEA number if they are a resident or filling in at a clinic outside of their normal practice area
10) the patient has no chronic medications that will have to be checked against the new drug for potentially life-threatening interactions
11) the technician/pharmacist working the previous day/shift didn't put the drug back in the completely wrong spot necessitating a search for it (I know we can't really be out of amoxicillin....)
12) if the patient doesn't pull out their insurance card when you go to ring them up, even though they had previously said they had no insurance and would be paying cash.

Yeah, given the above, I think 5 minutes is a reasonable wait time.
 
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But yeah.....let just ask the common everyday wo/man what they want....

 
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Received some new initiative this week. Apparently Walgreens will now concentrate on the customer instead of hitting metrics or earning a dollar. Not sure if its rolled out anywhere yet but I'm interested in seeing more about it.

Walgreens has already lowered the amount of metrics just showing how horrible it must be to work for cvs.

I don't get what the hidden agenda is behind Frontier. The main ideas are just common sense business principles.
 
I don't get what the hidden agenda is behind Frontier. The main ideas are just common sense business principles.

Shhh!!! They paid the consultants at McKinsey millions of dollars to come up with this genius idea!


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Shhh!!! They paid the consultants at McKinsey millions of dollars to come up with this genius idea!
QUOTE]

Exactly this is cookie cutter business consultant stuff. Like lean six sigma. Probably brought in by the Boots guys who are still trying to figure out what the heck US retail pharmacy is all about.
 
Kind of messed that up but my reply is in the quote. Anyway I agree with the original quote.
 
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