CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Time-delay safes are now being used in every CVS pharmacy location in West Virginia, including pharmacy locations inside Target stores for 58 sites in all, restricting access to drugs like oxycodone and hydrocodone.
“We’ve done this so that we can minimize and deter the amount of opioids getting into the hands of folks who don’t have a prescription,” said Raymond Sosa, director of the asset protection division for CVS Health.
“With the time-delayed safes, we’re targeting those folks that come in and steal (from) or rob CVS (locations).”
In 2015, CVS first installed time-delay safes that were controlled electronically in stores in Indianapolis, Ind. during a time when a large number of pharmacy robberies were being reported there.
During the test period, the company saw a 70 percent decline in pharmacy robberies among stores with the safes.
“These folks coming in would have to stand around and wait and a lot of robbers want to come in and get out in rather quick time,” Sosa said.
“We like to deter that by putting signage up on our front doors. We put signage back in the pharmacy. We put signage on the safes and throughout the building.”
All of the West Virginia CVS Pharmacy locations now have such notifications.
Customers with legitimate prescriptions will see no delays in service, according to Sosa, who said the safes also served as a safety measure for customers and employees.
The time-delay safe installations have been just one of the CVS Pharmacy initiatives being implemented to address and prevent prescription opioid misuse, diversion and abuse.
“CVS stays focused on trying to reduce the amount of opioids that are getting into our communities illegitimately,” Sosa said.
The company has installed 27 drug disposal kiosks for safe medication disposal at CVS locations in West Virginia and donated five other kiosks to local law enforcement agencies.
Nationwide, there were 1,800 units at CVS Pharmacy sites. In 2020, Sosa said 1,000 additions were planned.
Beginning in 2020, CVS Pharmacy locations without disposal kiosks will offer free DisposeRx packets, used for safe drug disposal at home, to patients filling opioid prescriptions for the first time.
Naloxone, the opioid overdose-reversal drug, is also available at every CVS Pharmacy location in the U.S. without an individual prescription.