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CSR Engaging Customers

Engaging Our Customers

In March 2008, we honored 10 people through “For All the Ways You Care,” a nationwide search for inspirational stories of caring. The contest drew thousands of submissions from across the country. Judy McAtee of Plano Center, IL, was selected as the Grand Prize Winner and the recipient of $25,000. Judy is a foster mother to more than 30 children and is a mother of 12, including 10 adopted children. Described as “the poster child for anything wise and caring,” Judy has lovingly cared for children less fortunate and formed “Special Gifts” seminars designed to share the experiences of foster care and adoption of special needs children. Nine finalists in the contest received cash prizes of $10,000 each.

Our customers engage with CVS Caremark in our stores and pharmacies as well as through mail-order pharmacies and our Web site. We have implemented initiatives and programs designed to engage with and address their diverse needs.

Women

Over the past several years, we have conducted extensive research to better understand the needs of our female customers, who represent about 75 percent of our retail customer base. We learned that many of them serve as the health care gatekeeper for their family and feel that caring for themselves and their families’ health and wellness is their most important job.

Based on this research, we have been able to better understand the stress and challenge of being a caregiver. The findings led us to:

  • Launch a new section on CVS.com to assist caregivers with prescription management and provide them with a variety of tools and resources to make their jobs easier.
  • Encourage caregivers to work with our pharmacists through in-store consultations to better understand the proper use and management of medication.
  • Create our “For All the Ways You Care” campaign, which celebrates women and their role as nurturers and caregivers. It includes a Web site with an online forum for sharing experiences, an advertising campaign and an event to honor extraordinary caregivers.

Seniors

Consumers over the age of 50 are our fastest growing pharmacy customer group. Seniors are in need of resources to help them maintain the best possible quality of life and to help them more effectively manage their medications. To meet the needs of seniors, we:

  • Partner on the “Prescription for Better Health” Campaign with the National Council on Aging (NCOA)—providing in-store and community outreach programs that offer free health information on medication management and healthy aging. Through more than 4,000 “Pack Your Bag” medication reviews sponsored with NCOA at senior centers across the country in 2008, CVS pharmacists were able to counsel patients on the following issues that were discovered:
    • 7% of seniors were taking expired medications
    • 14% were not taking medications as prescribed
    • 10% were at risk for potential drug interactions
    • 15% had the opportunity to switch to money-saving generics
  • Provide ongoing Medicare Part D education and counsel—making online tools and pharmacist counseling available to help seniors compare plans and achieve greater compliance.
  • Promote generic education and utilization—helping seniors learn more about generic medications and the inherent cost-savings opportunity.

Customer Access to Prescription Information Online

At CVS Caremark, we are committed to continuously improving our customers’ experience online, as well as in stores. In 2008, we revamped our Web site, www.cvs.com, which more than four million customers use for their personal and health needs. We focused on how our Web site could further our goal of making innovative and high-quality health and pharmacy services safe, affordable and accessible.

In 2008, CVS.com was named “Best Overall Internet Site” in the consumer health care product sales category by eHealthcare Strategy & Trends magazine and received an eHealthcare Leadership Award. The award recognizes the best Web sites across a broad spectrum of health care organizations, including providers, health plans and health care organizations. CVS.com won the platinum award for overall Web design, interactivity, integration, health content, medical care support and ease of navigation. CVS Caremark also captured first place at the National Conference on Health Care Consumerism as the “Best Website for Patient/Consumer Information” for the grouping of www.cvs.com, www.caremark.com and www.yourhealthconnection.com.

We also know that our customers want convenience and easy access to their health and prescription information. To meet this need, we launched partnerships with Microsoft HealthVault and Google Health in 2008 and early 2009 to provide customers easy and portable access to their health information online.

  • Google Health—CVS Caremark and Google Health partnered to provide our pharmacy customers with the option to store and manage their prescription information with their other health information within their Google Health accounts on a secure online site. This service enables CVS Caremark customers to upload their prescription information from Caremark.com and CVS.com and add summaries of MinuteClinic visits to their Google Health accounts. The program is intended to help close the gap in the health care system by making patient records accessible and portable. For example, if a patient is out-of-town and becomes ill, his or her medical and prescription history can be easily accessed and shared with a physician so a safe course of treatment can be determined.
  • Microsoft HealthVault—In fall 2008, we launched a partnership with Microsoft HealthVault to offer health care solutions that help customers manage their health and wellness information online. Through this collaboration, our customers can upload a comprehensive list of prescriptions filled at CVS/pharmacy or CVS Caremark mail-order pharmacy, as well as save copies of their health records, including laboratory tests from visits to MinuteClinic, into their individual HealthVault record. Customers can also upload personal health data, from devices such as blood pressure or glucose monitors, into HealthVault applications to augment their health information. These records are accessible and portable and may be shared with health professionals to ensure safe patient care.

A Su Salud Health Fairs

In 2008, CVS/pharmacy provided free and low-cost medical screenings and services valued at $55 million to the community through “A Su Salud” (To Your Health) health fairs in cities including Miami, Los Angeles, Dallas/Fort Worth, San Antonio and Houston. Serious health concerns were detected in an alarmingly high percentage of participantsin the A Su Salud health fairs last year.

Of the individuals screened:

  • 47 percent had high cholesterol
  • 39 percent had a high to moderate risk of developing osteoporosis
  • 27 percent had hypertension
  • 21 percent had diabetes, with more than half being diagnosed with diabetes for the first time

Many of the health fairs also focused on cancer screening for women, who comprised 78 percent of the A Su Salud event attendees in 2008. Once screened, CVS/pharmacy helps patients through on-site physician consults that analyze the results and refer patients to no-cost or low-cost medical facilities within that neighborhood or to their primary care physician should additional follow-up be required.

In 2009, CVS/pharmacy will again offer comprehensive health risk assessments at more than 750 store-based events, and partner with local and state agencies to host mobile units offering low-cost and no-cost cancer detection services for women, including mammograms and pap smears.