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BENTONVILLE, Ark. -- As good a job as many people feel Wal-Mart does in providing a superior pharmacy experience, executives think the company can do better.
That is why executives here pay close attention to every detail of the company's pharmacy operation and stay in constant touch with store personnel.
'Our job is to deal with the day-to-day things that our stores go through to ensure that the customer experience is everything it should be,' asserts vice president of pharmacy operations Ron Chomiuk.
That desire to make Wal-Mart's pharmacies the best they can be has led the company to scrutinize what they do and to never rest on its laurels, he says.
'One of our major initiatives this year is looking at how we make that experience as exciting and rewarding as possible and finding ways to improve the experience without sacrificing patient safety.'
The end result of this effort, he notes, is to make Wal-Mart the pharmacy of choice for patients in the hundreds of small, midsize and large communities that Wal-Mart serves.
'We want to make the WalMart pharmacy the place where our shoppers go first for their prescriptions,' Chomiuk says. 'But even more important, we want them to see us as a place they want to come back to and a place they will recommend to others.' Constantly thinking of ways to make the health care services it provides more accessible and pleasant for shoppers has helped make Wal-Mart's pharmacies market leaders in many of the communities in which they operate.
While in some cases that has been relatively easy because the company is the only mass market retailer for 20 or 30 miles, it has also helped Wal-Mart become the pharmacy of choice for shoppers in areas teeming with community pharmacy operators in a variety of trade classes.
One tactic that has proven to be extremely successful at driving patients into Wal-Mart pharmacies over the past year has been the proliferation of the chain's $4 generic prescription program.
Even Wal-Mart executives have been surprised at the impact the scheme has had on the company's business and on the entire American health care system.
'The $4 program has been a whole lot more rewarding than when we launched it,' Chomiuk says. 'We knew it was going to be popular, but we never thought it would have the impact it now has on our customers' health care.'
While the $4 generics program has helped countless people who could not previously afford their prescriptions get the medications they need, it has had other benefits for both patients and Wal-Mart.
The increase in patient traffic, Chomiuk explains, has led to more patients seeking counseling, medical advice and health care tips from Wal-Mart pharmacists.
'It has been one of the most rewarding things I have ever been involved with in my life,' Chomiuk says.
He stresses that the impact of the $4 generics program goes well beyond just the way it has affected Wal-Mart and says the company is flattered that others have followed its example and begun offering low-cost generics.
'This isn't just about Wal-Mart selling $4 prescriptions,' Chomiuk says. 'It's about improving Americans' health care. We encouraged others to join us in the program because it is about improving people's lives.'
Never losing sight of the fact that the decisions he and other Wal-Mart pharmacy executives make at headquarters can have wide-reaching implications on the lives of the company's pharmacist and its customers has helped Wal-Mart executives shape the way the business operates, Chomiuk points out.
'The decisions I make affect many people, so I am very careful about what I do,' he says, noting that a key part of his job is visiting Wal-Mart's stores and talking to the dozens of divisional regional and district managers and the thousands of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians under him.
'If we make decisions in Bentonville, Ark., about how our stores are going to operate in Birmingham, Ala., or in rural Louisiana, we are not going to be able to understand what they really need, and we are not going to be able to understand what our customers really need.'
