Recognizing American Pharmacists Month

October is American Pharmacists Month. It isn’t a coincidence that Customer Service Week also kicks off at the same time - supporting patients throughout their health and wellness journey is at the heart of CVS pharmacists’ work ethic. To me, these important observances represent a time of immense gratitude for the more than 30,000 pharmacists dedicated to supporting CVS Health.

Thank you to our retail pharmacists for meeting the needs of our millions of CVS Pharmacy patients every day; our CVS Caremark and CVS Specialty pharmacists who positively impact the health of our members while reducing health care costs; our Omnicare pharmacists who support residents in more than 9,000 long-term care facilities whose pharmacy needs can be particularly complex; our pharmacist medical directors; and our small but mighty Aetna One Clinical Pharmacists who form an integral part of collaborative care management. Across the company, our pharmacists make an impact in the lives of our patients and their communities every day — all while bringing their hearts to everything they do.

When I started my new role as CVS Health’s Chief Pharmacy Officer last November, it quickly became a top priority of mine to ensure our colleagues know that their voices are heard. Over the past eleven months, I'm grateful to have met with and spoken to many of our pharmacy colleagues, learning about what we are doing right and what we need to do better. It's my continued mission to act on these insights, making sure our pharmacy teams feel valued and recognizing the ways in which they are making a difference within our company and within the communities we serve.

When it comes to making a difference in our communities, pharmacists are on the frontlines of health care and do much more than simply fill prescriptions. At CVS Health, we are committed to creating capacity for our pharmacists to expand their role as trusted providers of accessible care. For example, our retail pharmacists can now evaluate COVID-19 positive patients and prescribe the COVID-19 oral antiviral treatment, if appropriate. This effort continues to roll out in our CVS Pharmacy stores in phases, and we plan to expand quickly to all our pharmacies nationwide by the end of this month.

A milestone in and of itself, it’s also incredibly exciting to see pharmacists further practice at the top of their education, experience, and training. This nationwide initiative is first of its kind that underscores the important role of the pharmacist in local communities. I want to highlight CVS Pharmacy’s own Shannon Cao of store #9791 who made history as our first pharmacist to prescribe Paxlovid. I’m thankful to Shannon and others for getting us started on this monumental path toward a new era in retail pharmacy.

As I reflect, I'm proud of the steps that we have taken this year to better support our pharmacy colleagues, but I recognize we still have a long way to go. Critical to that is getting more face-to-face time with my colleagues, which has been a priority of mine this year — and one of my favorite parts of the job. From listening and learning during small group sessions to store visits (where I even have had the chance to roll up my sleeves and work behind the pharmacy counter), the insights my team and I glean directly from our teams power our everyday work.

As we kickoff American Pharmacists Month, I’d like to extend a heartfelt “thank you” to my fellow pharmacists across the nation and especially to our CVS Health pharmacists. Please know that I'm listening to you, and I'm eager to continue supporting you as we end 2022 and begin a new chapter in 2023. I hope you know how proud and thankful I am for your incredible work, and I look forward to ushering in a new day in pharmacy, together.