Company Background
CVS Health Corporation is one of the largest providers of prescription drugs in the United States. The company provides prescription drug sales services and sells proprietary products for skin health and personal care. The corporation has several subsidiaries, including CVS Pharmacy, which sells prescription drugs, CVS Caremark, which provides medications to patients with medical benefits, and CVS Specialty, which specializes in providing medicines to chronically ill patients with genetically related pathologies.
The company began in 1963, opening its first small store in Lowell. The store sold beauty and skin products, which have always been popular. A year later, the number of stores grew to 17 in Massachusetts. A radical turnaround for the company was achieved under Francis K. Rooney’s presidency. His leadership led to significant growth in the company, resulting in the opening of new stores and branch locations over the next 20 years.
In 1967, the company expanded its services and opened its first in-store pharmacy. The same year, the company reported an annual profit of $270 million. 1969 marked the sale of CVS to Melville, a large department store and clothing chain that had helped grow the business to 1,644 CVS stores and drugstores. In 1983, the company began assisting patients with hemophilia by dispensing rare and expensive medications. By coming a long way, the company has earned its status as one of the largest pharmaceutical firms in the United States.
Without breaking tradition in its commitment to helping people, the company is dedicated to providing patients with necessary, yet expensive, medications. In 2017, for example, the company expanded hospitals’ access to the drug naloxone, which is used to resuscitate patients who overdose on morphine and other drugs that affect opioid receptors. In 2020, the company assisted numerous hospitals in the U.S. with critical COVID-19 treatment and diagnosis challenges, performing over 15 million tests in a single year (Zippia, 2020).
Key Quality Concepts of the Organization
In modern times, this company has established a strong reputation for providing prompt and efficient care to patients in need. Deciphering the company’s name helps answer the question of what concepts and principles guide the company in achieving success. These include convenience, value, and service.
Convenience lies in having many products for customers in one pharmacy, including both regular and rare, as well as expensive ones. The concept of value means the company’s attitude towards the patient; regardless of their illness, finances, or others, the company is ready to help everyone in need, sometimes even working at a loss. The last term, service, includes a qualitative, fast selection of necessary drugs so that the patient does not wait too long and can improve the quality of their life. These concepts have helped the company earn a reputation as a major drug supplier and the trust of clinics and patients.
Improving Quality Service Concepts
Any strategy can be improved by incorporating new concepts and processes into the company. For example, it is possible to automate the sales process in pharmacies by entrusting the dispensing of drugs and customer billing to an automated robot and making them available 24 hours a day. The company could save on labor while speeding up dispensing, making customer service faster. It will also eliminate cases where a patient needs drugs related to “embarrassing” diseases (such as AIDS); the patient will not have to worry about buying the medicine.
CVS Health Corporation has reached unprecedented heights through long, hard work. The company has evolved from a tiny store to a large corporation with stores open nationwide. The corporation’s contributions to health care, such as helping patients pro bono, have helped make CVS one of the most influential pharmacy chains in the U.S. pharmacy market.
References
Zippia. (2020). CVS health history: Founding, timeline, and milestones.