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.

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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.