Walgreens, a drugstore chain which operates more than 8,200 outlets aspires to transform the traditional drugstore into a health and daily living destination that offers a range of products and services to help customers get, stay and live well.
Building the foundational architecture today to securely connect to tomorrow’s health ecosystem, navigate industry standards and expand healthcare services.
The transformation of the US healthcare industry driven by the Affordable Care Act is blurring the boundaries of the traditional US health delivery landscape. In this new landscape, Walgreens is pursuing the development of health system partnerships and connected health capabilities to become the first movers in new provider spaces, such as retail clinics.
To provide the services needed to connect Walgreens to the healthcare ecosystem enabling health information exchange and enhanced communications, the company needs to establish the necessary information technology (IT) infrastructure and strategy to develop a centralized and consistent approach to external connectivity.
Walgreens turned to Accenture to help it to move to a standard, scalable single-point gateway structure to connect to internal and external stakeholders. Accenture’s Connected Health team collaborated closely with Walgreens’ resources to develop a plan, and subsequently design and develop a foundational architecture and the core capabilities needed to enable clinical data sharing. As Walgreens continues its journey toward becoming more connected in the health ecosystem, the next phases of deployment are to build connections to strategic health systems, delivery networks and stand-alone institutions.
