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Councilors to consider what to do about possible collapse of two hospitals, pullout of chain pharmacies
By adamg on Wed, 01/24/2024 - 2:52pm
City Councilors decided today to begin focusing on what to do if Steward Health Care, which runs St. Elizabeth's Medical Center in Brighton and Carney Hospital in Dorchester, goes under - and to deal with the more immediate issue of Walgreens closing yet another pharmacy in Roxbury and CVS in the Fields Corner Target.
Councilor Liz Breadon (Allston/Brighton) said Steward's two Boston hospitals provide care to tens of thousands of residents - many of them on MassHealth or Medicare - who might not have easy access to new healthcare providers should the for-profit hospital system, which is now in arrears to many of its providers and vendors.
Councilors Tania Fernandes Anderson (Roxbury) and Brian Worrell (Dorchester), said they are also concerned about where Roxbury residents will go when Walgreens shuts the Warren Street pharmacy - which the company had said residents could use after it closed its Nubian Square pharmacy a couple years ago.
Fernandes Anderson, who referred to the emergence of "pharmacy deserts," said many of Warren Street customers don't drive, have mobility issues or are elderly, so will be hit particularly hard when the store closes. She called on Walgreens to keep the store open so that city leaders and residents can figure out a way to build a new system for residents to continue having easy access to their medications, vaccinations and other services.
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Comments
City Councilors should have to take business classes
Hopefully someone will explain to the city councilors that Walgreens is out of lease term on Warren Street and does not have the option to stay no matter how much pressure an irrelevant city council places on them.
That did come up
She said the lease runs through the end of February, but the store was originally planned to close on MLK Day.
Six weeks isn't meaningful.
Six weeks isn't meaningful. Once landlord said they were done they had to let employees get other jobs
Horses for courses…
Whether this Walgreens stays or goes is somewhat orthogonal to whether parts of the city are underserved by pharmacies. The latter is the kind of strategic, policy-level big thinking that the City Council ought to be doing.
Well, I hate to be the one to
Well, I hate to be the one to break it to you, but if your hope lies with the Boston City Council, you're doomed.
Keep toothpaste open!
Keep toothpaste open!
Steward could probably pay
Steward could probably pay off a few bills if the CEO sold his $40 million yacht...but that was never the point now was it
Private equity is a cancer on
Private equity is a cancer on this nation
I’m a cancer?
My wife and I helped fund her brothers hemp growing business in rural Wisconsin (Workman’s Relief). It’s had a wonderful impact on agriculture in the region.
We also have equity in a company working on nuclear fusion.
In healthcare, because it’s so regulated, private equity many times exploits loopholes to make a profit at the expense of people’s health. That’s wrong, but that doesn’t encapsulate all of private equity.
Benign neoplasms exist
But their cancerous cousins will still make all neoplasms suspect.
There are over 11,000 private
There are over 11,000 private equity-owned businesses in the U.S. right now and nearly $1 trillion of capital available for private equity to invest. Most of those businesses are small, privately held ones. Chances are, you use the products and services of private-equity backed businesses every day. And, if you or your friends and family have pensions, then you or they are invested in private equity.
Chickens coming home to roost
Working for Steward at one point in my life showed how crazy they spend and waste money. Like drunken sailors. They were throwing out crates of baby formula because the contract had ended with the supplier. Worst part about it they easily could’ve donated it to the women’s shelter down the street.
Honestly that might have been the cheapest option
Blame the manufacturer for it not Walgreens. They mostly have a contract that Walgreen pays for what they sell. If Walgreens can't prove they returned or destroyed the product, they'd be on the hook for the cost.
Pharmacy close by…never reported.
A six minute walk from Walgreens at the corner of Warren and Quincy is a pharmacy run by Whittier Health Center at the corner of Quincy and Blue Hill. (278 Blue Hill).
Not to mention that phamarcies deliver, and there’s mail order which is often cheaper. Everyone seems to be able to use Amazon…
Business is Business.
delivery doesn't work for urgent needs
And delivery often costs extra.
We need to stop relying on businesses to deliver essential services because as soon as they can't game wild quarterly profits, they abandon their customer bases.
Private equity
has destroyed newspapers, khaki pants, mattresses, the music industry, healthcare, the news media, and the list goes on.
You fool no one.
Oh, no ... not khaki pants!
Oh, no ... not khaki pants!
I wish
it were possible to let Carney go under and replace it with a working hospital that provided actual medical care instead of finding a way to perpetuate the dangerous for-profit malpractice and medical error facility it is now, but as an American I know this is a pipe dream.
As an outsider of Boston who
As an outsider of Boston who has been involved in government around the suburbs of the city and community building work inside Boston I'd say that they should look to programs they have already seen work for inspiration.
The City Hall on the Go Van was always something that made sense to me.
The city has also been pretty good about figuring out where food trucks are needed away from other restaurants but in areas where people want food.
Why not use that same philosophy and contract with one of the local hospitals with a vibrant pharmacy to offer on the go pharmacy van that visits neighborhoods once a week/month? Granted it's less convenient than having one you can go to anytime but at least it gives residents a chance to pick up their drugs, talk to a pharmacist etc. by spreading the cost across multiple communities you get around the market issue of not having enough business to justify the overhead expenses of brick and mortar and maintaining a full staff.
I understand why many people wouldn't want to do all mail order drugs, not everyone has a secure place to drop off, it's good to be able to ask questions in person and some people just prefer in person. A rotating van would solve a lot of those problems and give city hall the option to bring it right into communities.
This is what happens when public good becomes a business
While I sympathize that the Walgreens corporation needs to eek out another .002 cent raise in their stock prices for their shareholders, a neighborhood pharmacy is a public good and is an underappreciated resource in helping seniors stay in their neighborhoods. It's also important for young families and the disabled. You know, the nice diverse fabric of community we theoretically want in a neighborhood.
Doesn't the city own a bunch of the commercial space in Nubian? If I were them I would contract with a LOCALLY OWNED pharmacy (there's a good handful) to give them extremely discounted or even free rent if they guarantee service to X underserved areas. This kind of deal makes a way bigger impact on a local company that only has 2-3 stores already as opposed to Walgreens, CVS, etc. Local pharmacies tend to provide better service and get to know their customers better anyway.
I've thought about this but
I've thought about this but there is the pharmacist problem. Running one local pharmacy is easier on a small organization than a few. Those pharmacists require special training and make really good money elsewhere. Recruiting them to work for a small operation and keeping them in place becomes difficult.
This is the ticking time bomb that is vet service in this country too. When we weren't looking small vet clinics were getting gobbled up by large corporations. Now many are owned in that same way and for vets to get into the game at a good level it takes a huge leap.
Getting pharmacists to join local small pharmacies may be hard unless there was an incentive. If it was connected to government style pensions or they got ownership stakes etc.