Pfizer Enters into Agreement with Walgreens to Help Eligible U.S. Adults Navigate Their Healthcare Journey

Winter is a busy time of year. The one thing you don’t want to let fall by the wayside is your health, especially with colder weather potentially bringing an increase in COVID-19, flu, and other respiratory viruses.

For some adults, keeping up with their health, including understanding which vaccinations they may be eligible to receive, may feel like a daunting task. The agreement between Pfizer and Walgreens is intended to help make the process more connected and personal.

We recently launched a program aimed to help improve and expand the patient experience, with the goal of providing patients with informative vaccine content from their pharmacy; in tandem, pharmacists can support their patients through their healthcare journey, whether they’re determining vaccination eligibility, checking in for an appointment, receiving a vaccine, or scheduling a COVID-19 or flu test.

As part of this work, people can expect the following experience:

Support for Vaccine Scheduling: Pharmacists are among the most trusted healthcare partners, often engaging with patients related to appropriate vaccines. For example, eligible patients who are due for a COVID-19 vaccine may receive a text or call reminding them to schedule an appointment. Pharmacists also offer human-to-human care, which means patients will be connected with a local pharmacist, not spam, not a robocall, not AI, but an actual human who will reach out with a reminder.

During that call, the pharmacist may talk patients through eligibility for specific vaccinations (e.g., COVID-19, flu, pneumococcal pneumonia, RSV and shingles), discuss any questions or concerns the patient may have around safety, and provide clinical information about new variants and who may be most at risk of severe illness. The pharmacist may also work with the patient to find a date and time that’s convenient to receive the vaccination(s) or let the patient know what’s next on their vaccination list based on age, personal preference, and medical history.

Access to Testing: If a patient thinks they may have contracted COVID-19 or flu, Walgreens and Pfizer have partnered to make it easier to schedule an in-person test with a local pharmacist. Based on the results and individual circumstances, the pharmacist can advise on appropriate next steps, including potential treatment options.

In a world that’s overloaded with automated messages and impersonal communication, Pfizer and Walgreens are working to bring a personal touch to healthcare. And with further innovations on the way – including improvements to the automated prescription process and enhancing the in-store pharmacy experience – we aim to make staying educated on an increasingly complex and confusing immunization schedule as easy as possible. Because sometimes, to make breakthroughs that change patients’ lives, we need to break through the noise.