Jacob Frias, North Richland Hills, Texas

Drug Store News,  Dec 19, 2005  by James Frederick

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Jacob Frias is a Wal-Mart pharmacist who sounds like an independent drug store owner. When describing his role as pharmacy supervisor at a Wal-Mart supercenter in North Richland Hills, Texas, he clearly takes pride in his role as a patient counselor--and as head of the store's pharmacy department.

"We're there to serve the customers, and what better place to do it than Wal-Mart?" he asked. Before the store opens at 9 a.m., he said: "I walk my floor and make sure that everything's stocked in the OTC area. I do a little bit of merchandising on my own to make sure we have the right features at the right time for our customers."

Frias, a five-year Wal-Mart veteran and graduate of the University of Oklahoma pharmacy school, likes the fact that the company encourages him as a pharmacy supervisor to take ownership of his department. "It's pretty unique the way Wal-Mart's set up," he avowed. "There's always [prescription volume] numbers you have to hit in order to be profitable, but at the same time, they've given us a lot of leeway in dealing with customers and in what we can do for them."

In line with that "please-the-customer-first" policy, he added: "We really try to develop a relationship with every customer who comes through that door.

"There are a lot of pharmacies out there," he noted. "The thing that separates Wal-Mart from the rest is that personal relationship each pharmacist tries to develop with that customer. I want that customer to say, 'I get my prescriptions filled at Wal-Mart, and my pharmacist is Jacob or whoever.' We want that personal relationship."

At the North Richland Hills store, Frias splits store hours with one other pharmacist, each of whom usually works a 12-hour shift. In addition, he said, "We always have two technicians and a part-time cashier."

With the help of the Connexus pharmacy system, that's enough staff to do the job. Frias said the difference between Connexus and the old pharmacy system it replaced in 2001 was "unbelievable," adding that the old system "took a lot of time for the pharmacists, when you had to look at profiles and search for drug interactions. It didn't seem so difficult at the time because that's all we knew. But when the Connexus system came along, it freed us up a lot, so we could spend more time with the customer. It changed the whole work flow and freed us up to spend more time with the patients and talk with their doctors over the phone."

It also allows Frias to engage his instincts as both a professional health counselor/caregiver and a retail entrepreneur. "My big thing here is walking out on the floor," he said. "Any customer who comes into my section enters what Wal-Mart calls the '10-foot rule.' So, if we have a customer who comes near, we go out there and greet the customer, make sure they're finding everything UK.

"I ask them if there's anything I can do for them," Frias added. "And usually, when they need help finding a product like diabetic supplies or with something like high blood pressure, it opens up an opportunity for me to begin speaking with that customer about that disease state and recommending which blood pressure monitor or diabetic monitor they should get."

In addition, he said, "It's also an opportunity for me to ask them if they get their prescriptions filled at Wal-Mart and tell them I'd love to be their pharmacist."

Given the way Frias approaches his professional tasks, it's no surprise that he looks at the launch of Medicare drug benefits as more of an opportunity than a counseling or administrative burden. "It's definitely impacted my pharmacy, but I don't look at it as a burden," he asserted. "I just look at it as an opportunity to serve my community and customers. I think that's what we're there for. And Wal-Mart has done a great job in giving us information to help us explain the Medicare Act.

"We're busy, but who else better to do it than a pharmacist?" he continued.

Frias, like many Wal-Mart pharmacists, also looks beyond the counter for ways to connect with patients. "Every store is different, and it's based on the location and the prescription volume we do, but I think as a company we all strive to do something for the community," he said. In his market, that includes speaking to nursing home residents about the Medicare drug benefit, brown-bag events, screenings for high blood pressure and other conditions, as well as a diabetes intervention program in the stores.

In addition, the North Richland Hills pharmacy participates in national Wal-Mart health monitoring events for diabetes, high cholesterol and other conditions.

If those tests are positive, he said, the pharmacist steers the patient to his or her doctor for additional testing.

"I find myself speaking to doctors more and more," he said. "And, since the profession itself has transitioned to the Pharm.D. degree, we're more respected by physicians. They really utilize us for that drug intervention."

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