Johns Hopkins Medicine and Walgreens Expand Health Care Collaboration with Opening of New Store, Bringing Health and Wellness Services to Campus Community

DEERFIELD, Ill. & BALTIMORE, November 22, 2013 – Officials from Walgreens (NYSE: WAG) (Nasdaq: WAG) and Johns Hopkins Medicine (JHM) today celebrate the expansion of a unique collaboration between the two parties, with the grand opening of a new Walgreens store adjacent to the JHM campus. The store project is a joint effort to bring new health and wellness programs and other health care services to the surrounding community, furthering the partnership between Johns Hopkins and Walgreens to explore the development of new models for improving overall patient care.

“This store is an ideal environment for our pharmacists and the Healthcare Clinic nurse practitioners to work with Johns Hopkins Medicine faculty to further innovate in health care while providing greater access to services for the community,” said Kermit Crawford, Walgreens president of pharmacy, health and wellness. “We’re proud of the great work that’s being done through this unique collaboration that led to this store’s opening as a model of our partnership to help students, staff and area residents get, stay and live well.”

The new Walgreens “Well Experience” store offers health services, as well as healthy food options and a full selection of other daily living products. In addition to its pharmacy, the store brings other health care resources to the community with a new Healthcare Clinic, staffed by board-certified nurse practitioners, marking the first Walgreens in-store retail clinic in the state of Maryland.

The store is located at the Science and Technology Park adjacent to the Johns Hopkins medical campus at 900 N. Washington St., Baltimore.

New services now available include:

• Student health services – clinical, pharmacy and retail products and services
  
• Healthcare Clinic – with extended evening and weekend hours, providing assessment, treatment and management of certain chronic conditions, as well as care for minor illness and injuries, immunizations, preventive health screenings/counseling and more
  
• Chronic disease education and awareness programs
  

Other programs and services planned to be offered soon include:

• Smoking cessation
  
• HIV testing – part of a Walgreens program supporting people living with HIV/AIDS, offering accessible health and wellness guidance and testing programs/services
  
• Travel immunizations
  

“These programs will provide a novel approach to population health and medical services,” said Patricia M.C. Brown, J.D., president of Johns Hopkins HealthCare. “They will benefit not only the surrounding community, but also form the level of health care collaboration that could serve as a national model.”

“We have been working with Walgreens for more than a year to develop collaborative approaches to population-based research which utilize the strengths of both organizations to improve health outcomes for patients,” said Jeanne M. Clark, M.D., director of the Division of General Internal Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “The opening of the new Walgreens store increases our potential to advance population health in the community and across the country and is a mechanism to expand our relationship with Walgreens.”

Walgreens to Provide Initial Funding for Brancati Center for Advancement of Community Care

As an extension of the collaboration with Johns Hopkins, Walgreens today announced it will provide the initial funding for the new Brancati Center for the Advancement of Community Care. The center, part of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, will develop and test new models of collaborative care to improve the health of communities using the unique skills and perspectives of a diverse group of clinicians including pharmacists, nurse practitioners and others.

The center is named in honor of the late Frederick L. Brancati, M.D., Johns Hopkins’ longtime professor of medicine and epidemiology and director of the Division of General Internal Medicine. Brancati was an internationally recognized expert on epidemiology and the prevention of Type 2 diabetes. Walgreens and Johns Hopkins will work together toward a goal of raising $10-$15 million in contributions over the next five years.

“Pharmacists and nurse practitioners are playing a critical role in health care today, and we share the Center’s mission on a local, national and global scale to further the study and development of new health care models that allow these clinicians to practice at the top of their licensure and training while serving as a part of patients’ care teams,” said Harry Leider, M.D., Walgreens chief medical officer.

About Walgreens
As the nation’s largest drugstore chain with fiscal 2013 sales of $72 billion, Walgreens (www.walgreens.com) vision is to be the first choice in health and daily living for everyone in America, and beyond. Each day, Walgreens provides more than 6 million customers the most convenient, multichannel access to consumer goods and services and trusted, cost-effective pharmacy, health and wellness services and advice in communities across America. Walgreens scope of pharmacy services includes retail, specialty, infusion, medical facility and mail service, along with respiratory services. These services improve health outcomes and lower costs for payers including employers, managed care organizations, health systems, pharmacy benefit managers and the public sector. The company operates 8,131 drugstores in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Take Care Health Systems is a Walgreens subsidiary that is the largest and most comprehensive manager of worksite health and wellness centers, provider practices, and in-store convenient care clinics, with more than 750 locations throughout the country.

SOURCE: Walgreens