WOONSOCKET, R.I., Dec. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- CVS Pharmacy, the
retail division of CVS Health (NYSE: CVS), announced today that it
has completed the rollout of time delay safes in all of its 77 CVS
Pharmacy locations in Kentucky.
The safes will help prevent pharmacy robberies and combat the
ongoing opioid epidemic by helping to prevent diversion of
controlled substance narcotic medications by keeping them out of
the hands of unauthorized individuals. In addition, the safes will
help CVS Pharmacy ensure the safety and well-being of its customers
and employees.
Controlled substance narcotic medications that are sought after
by robbers, such as oxycodone and hydrocodone, are now stored in
safes using time delay technology in every CVS Pharmacy in the
state of Kentucky. Time delay
safes help deter pharmacy robberies by electronically delaying the
time it takes for pharmacy employees to be able to open the safe.
CVS Pharmacy first implemented time delay safes in Indianapolis, a city experiencing a high
volume of pharmacy robberies, in 2015. The company saw a 70 percent
decline in pharmacy robberies among the Indianapolis stores where the time delay safes
had been installed.
"Pharmacy robberies are a challenging issue for every pharmacy
and we are committed to doing all we can to reduce the number of
pharmacy robbery incidents in our Kentucky stores," said Everett Moore, Division Vice President of CVS
Pharmacy. "In other parts of the country we have seen that time
delay safes, combined with the other security policies and
procedures in place at our stores, can greatly reduce these
incidents. We are pleased to roll out time delay safes here
in Kentucky to help ensure that
our pharmacies remain a safe environment for our patients and
colleagues."
"I applaud CVS Health on the installation of time delay safes in
all of their Kentucky pharmacies,"
said State Senator Julie Raque
Adams. "The opioid epidemic has hit Kentucky especially hard, as it has so many
other states, and our communities are working to fight this growing
problem each and every day. An important way to do so is to ensure
that medications are kept out of the wrong hands and the safes now
in place at CVS Pharmacy locations in Kentucky will help do just that."
"Substance misuse is a significant driver of criminal behavior,
as people sometimes turn to illegal behavior to fuel their
addictions," said Louisville Metro
Police Chief Steve Conrad. "I am
very pleased that our partners at CVS Health are taking additional
steps to reduce thefts from their stores. It takes all of us as a
community working together to address the high rates of addiction
we are seeing and to reduce the crime that often comes with
that."
The time delay function cannot be overridden and is designed to
serve as a deterrent to would-be pharmacy robbers whose goal is to
enter and exit their robbery targets as quickly as possible. All
CVS Pharmacy locations with time delay safes display highly-visible
signage to inform the public that time delay safes are in use to
prevent on-demand access to controlled substance narcotics.
The implementation of time delay safes across all CVS Pharmacy
locations in Kentucky is the
latest in a series of measures put in place by CVS Health to help
combat prescription drug abuse in the state. CVS Health's
commitment to preventing and addressing prescription drug abuse
extends to community education, efforts to encourage safe disposal
of unused medication and increasing access to the opioid
overdose-reversal drug naloxone. The company's Pharmacists
Teach program brings CVS Pharmacists to schools across the country
to talk to students and parents about the dangers of prescription
drug abuse. More than 418,000 students across the country,
including nearly 3,000 in Kentucky, have participated in the
program.
CVS Health has also completed installation of nine safe
medication disposal units in CVS Pharmacy stores in Kentucky. Nationwide, 750 safe medication
disposal units have been installed in CVS Pharmacy locations,
adding to the more than 900 units the company has donated to law
enforcement agencies. The company has committed to installing an
additional 1,100 units in 2019. In total, the company has
facilitated more than 1,650 units nationwide, which have collected
more than 555,000 pounds, or 252 metric tons of unwanted medication
to date. Increasing community access to safe medication disposal
helps rid homes of unused medications that could otherwise be
diverted, abused or contaminate the water supply if disposed of
improperly.
About CVS Pharmacy
CVS Pharmacy, the retail division
of CVS Health (NYSE: CVS), is America's leading retail pharmacy
with over 9,800 locations. It is the first national pharmacy to end
the sale of tobacco and the first pharmacy in the nation to receive
the Community Pharmacy accreditation from URAC, the leading health
care accreditation organization that establishes quality standards
for the health care industry. CVS Pharmacy is reinventing pharmacy
to help people on their path to better health by providing the most
accessible and personalized expertise, both in its stores and
online at CVS.com. General information about CVS Pharmacy is
available at http://www.cvshealth.com.
Media Contact:
Amy
Lanctot
Cell: (401) 258-9216
Amy.Lanctot@CVSHealth.com
View original content to download
multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cvs-pharmacy-completes-rollout-of-time-delay-safes-in-all-kentucky-pharmacy-locations-300759817.html
SOURCE CVS Pharmacy