We need an All Night Pharmacy - Call to Action
 

Last week while dealing with a mid-of-the-night medical issue, I discovered that we no longer have an all-night pharmacy anywhere in the Villages. I was shocked. I even called the hospital and they said nothing was open but we could always go the the emergency room. Many people have a $500 copay or higher when a $25-$50 solution is available. This also puts a large burden on our emergency room dealing with issues that don’t require an emergency room. Whether a grandchild forgot their Benadryl and broke out in hives at 1am or the blood pressure cuff stopped working, we need an all-night pharmacy! (update, to be clear- or an all-night store that carries medical supplies like a Walmart)

After numerous calls to see if any department in The Villages could help with this (the answer is no), I started calling corporate customer service for CVS, Walgreens and Walmart.

The only way to fix this problem is to call with our concerns. When I was talking to CVS on 466, even they said, things are much more difficult now that they are not open all night and they would prefer to be open.

So, I am including the number for corporate customer service for all 3 stores. I am not opening this thread for complaining or even reasons why this happened. I am hoping that if I give the phone number for all three corporations, people will take action! I have to admit, I was on the phone for over a half hour with just one store, but this thread is a call to action. TV will be a safer place for everyone if we have an all-night pharmacy.

CVS – customer Service-no email provided on website – 1 800 746-7287 (800 SHOPCVS)
Walgreens – 1 800 925-4733
You can go to the contact us page and Store Service. You need a specific Walgreens store if you choose to write.
Walmart – 1 800 925-6278 (800 WALMART) - Customer Service is usually pretty fast.

We are not aware of the exact details of the issue. Many people are on drugs.

We wrestle with insurance companies, medicare and other bureaucracies. I used to travel. Post 9/11 you would go through all kinds of nonsense over drugs in your pocket.
I once left it in my checked bag and the airline lost my bag. A different state, no prescription. Well an adventure. More recently medicare. They insist you buy MAIL ORDER. It is a 14 day supply. Hum that is 28 days what to do on a 30 or 31 day month?
I bought a supply out of pocket.

How I think. Far simpler but I always buy extra bulbs and have a spare tire. A all night pharmacy. They would have to find and pay staff. Unfortunately risk of theft would be high as well.

We always keep a bug out bag for travel and or emergencies (hurricanes) Benadryl in tablet form has a shelf life of over 10 years liquid form 2 year's.
Aspirin, Tylenol along with gauze bandages should be a normal staple in everyone's home. The hospital was correct in referring you to an emergency facility. I hope the child is okay. Benadryl cost is between $4 and $7 24 count just buy some

I'm just thankful that they can find enough staff to stay open during daylight hours, let alone all night. Unfortunately, it may be awhile before we see things normalize so that this can happen.

14 day supply mail order I can only get 90 days meds. Common knowledge always carry meds with you not packed in luggage I bet you know that now.

I feel your pain and understand where you are coming from. If I recall correctly we ended up at a Walgreens in Leesburg? to obtain a middle of the night prescription when we first landed here.

As far as inside The Villages, I don't think now is a good time to ask them to be open longer when they are having a hard time covering the day and evening shift. The Manager at the Walgreens on 441 was speaking about how hard it is for them to keep people.

You have a lot of good points but good luck getting them to happen. :bigbow:

Not cost efficient. Unlikely to happen here. Orlando has them

I’m sorry for your problem but even in a full hire economy , there is never going to r that kind of volume for any store opening.I would think the best thing to do would be to go to one of the 24/7 walk in clinics

For what it is worth, I searched leesburg & Ocala with no luck in finding an all-night pharmacy

CVS and Walgreens rt 50 Clermont

Since no one asked pointedly....
Why did you need a 24/hr pharmacy. If it wasn't an emergency a person would tend to think you didn't plan ahead and either ran out of something or didn't have something on hand for the issue. This is not reason enough to have a 24/hr. pharmacy. So unless you are more specific with your problem then it is likely to be taken by those with common sense that is might be screw up on the posters part.

I was thinking the same thing, why do you need an all night pharmacy? Unless you had an unexpected all night emergency. Myself in that event, I would go here a mile from house open 24/7.

Trailwinds Village ER | Ocala Health | Ocala, FL

Good to have that information. Thanks.

There are probably online medical providers that could deal with some medical problems as well.

Best Online Doctors Platforms in 2021

Maybe I wasn't specific enough, it isn't about getting meds, it could be about a blood pressure machine that stopped working, or any other number of things. This isn't about divulging personal information. Even when I lived in a town of 50,000, we had an all night pharmacy or an all night Walmart. It isn't about not packing your medicines in your overnight bag. I gave 2 examples out of hundreds of reasons that an all-night pharmacy or Walmart is needed.

For those that don't think this is important, that's fine. For those that think we should have at lease one all night store for emergencies, I gave the information to contact the stores.

Noted your comment about having a $500 co pay. I am under 65 and went to Villlages Hospital/University of Florida. They charged me $1900 for an ER visit, not including other charges, such as tesring x rays etc.

To make matters worse, I never went into the actual ER as all beds were full and all ER patients were kept in waiting room. Contested the charge and they claim that this is a charge for ALL ER patients when they walk in from exterior door. Charged me to sit in ER waiting area over $200 an hour for that priviledge.

Our local pharmacies have an arrangement for when a pharmacist is needed when the pharmacy is closed that the person is to call our police dept and it will arrange for a pharmacist to open the pharmacy and obtain the necessary medication. The police will meet and stand-by the pharmacy until the script is filled/paid for and all persons have left the area.

You should open one then.


I mean you're talking about incredibly rare exceptions to "business as usual." A pharmacy that's open all night, in a community that generally shuts its lights out by 11PM. You have to pay electricity, employee at the cash register, a second employee for security (you can't have a pharmacy open with only one employee in the building), and then there are the extra costs for permits for 24-hour operations of businesses...

All just in case Mr. Dookie's CPap battery dies at midnite r Grandson gets the munchies at 3AM and eats a candybar with peanuts and no one thought to bring his epipen with him?

Not gonna happen. The store would be out of business in a couple of months, permanently - not even open only in the day anymore.

There are at least 3 Seven-Eleven stores in and around The Villages that are open all night which deliver and sell Benadryl, Pepto Bismol, Tylenol, Advil, Trojans, etc.

Seven Eleven delivers? Wow.

We like the idea of an all night pharmacy open with just 2 people and no one else around , who do we call , signed the James gang

This had nothing to do with running out of meds. We need an all night store, even a Walmart.

Walmart 24/7 for many generics . Otherwise emergency room. Less than 30 minutes from anywhere in the villages.

24/7 stores
 

As a former cashier and a 24 seven grocery store that probably included the things that you required, it was shut down over 10 years ago. We were close to the interstate and it was very convenient but I had a gun pulled on me. Nobody wanted to work that shift before and after that happened they decided the risk is too great to have the store open overnight. Theft was very common place also people would steal alcohol. I was the only one on the front end. I did have a night crew stocking.there’s no way in this currant economy i can see that happening.just looking at the other view, not cost effective. No staff. And my favorite for anything here, the demographics wont support it.as for calling customer support, I did to get a grocery store closer to my house, i had to get the county supervisor on board and talk to the president of the company in person to 5 different stores before one would agree to build. Good luck

7/11 delivers Trojans? That should be a big seller in TV...
:1rotfl::1rotfl::clap2:

I couldn't find any Walmart open 24/7 from Ocala to Orlando. All say open until 11PM.
:ohdear::ohdear:

Another Labor Shortage?
 

I’m just guessing that a shortage of pharmacists willing to work the midnight shift might have something to do with it.

This is one of the funniest complaints I've seen here...... just sayin'

Always keep an extra 30 days supply of all my drugs....problem solved :bigbow:

What will the police be doing at a pharmacy if there is serious crime happening?

The question by the OP does not deserve snide and self-serving comments.

I believe the OP brought on some of remarks when she changed the meaning of her request. It went from needing a pharmacy to needing an all night store, such as Walmart. An all night store is much more sensible, however I'm sure Walmart and others have studied the demographics of the area, and most don't need to shop after 11pm. If you have a medical problem, we already have a few 24/7 ER type facilities in the area.

Before Covid19 the Wal-Mart on 441 was open 24 hours

I agree. But good luck in getting cooperate to do that when everybody is having trouble staffing during regular hours.

Only a 30 minute drive from The Villages

Walgreens
24 - hour pharmacy
125 E MAIN ST
Apopka, FL 32703

How often will you need this service? If you cant drive, then Uber or taxi. Ask a neighbor for a ride.

Leave Joe Walsh out of this! :icon_wink:

Our granddaughter works at a CVS 7p to 7a. She calls it bunch of money going in her pocket for very little work. Usually in a week, clientele buys non essential items. About once a month a new mom comes in, little frightened, because baby has a fever, cough, constipation. Usually not life threatening, but once in a blue moon needs a script that should have been filled days ago, just didn’t have the time,
A blood pressure machine would be in a medical facility. A battery operated BP cuff, is accurate or not, depending on the batteries or the user. I have taken 10 brands to the OR is compare with on board anesthesia machine cuff. Found some close, but 3 hours later very different results.

If you can drive to a CVS in the middle of the night for a BP cuff, you are not close to needed a 24 pharmacy. In the wee hours. if you are given a script from the ED or late discharge, you are sent home with what’s called a quick fill of 1-3 days until you can get to a pharmacy.

Now if your epi pen can’t be found, you need to call 911, cause you will never get in your car, much less to CVS.

Probably a much better solution would be for the local hospital to create a drive-up window for their pharmacy that's open 24/7 as I am pretty sure that hospital pharmacies are open all night long or or at least staffed 24/7. Perhaps somebody who works at the hospitals here can tell me this whether it's true true or false

The Villages Hospital does not have a retail pharmacy where you can fill prescriptions.

Patients can't even fill their prescriptions at the hospital when they are discharged.

Nope
 

I know when I am running out of medicine and order ahead of time. That works good for me.