Aurora Health Care to end supermarket pharmacy business

MILWAUKEE In an effort to consolidate its various healthcare operations, Aurora Health Care plans to end its business operating pharmacies inside grocery stores, the Milwaukee-based healthcare network announced Wednesday.

Aurora said it would sell an additional 10 pharmacies it operates in other grocery stores or outside its service area to Walgreens, which plans to close them and transfer prescriptions to nearby Walgreens stores. In addition, supermarket operator Roundy’s will buy the 20 pharmacies that Aurora operates inside its stores.

“These changes will strengthen our integration within Aurora and help ensure that all of our pharmacies are able to meet our patients’ needs with the same high level of services,” Aurora Pharmacy director of operations John Gates said in a statement.

The network will continue to operate its 81 standalone retail pharmacies throughout eastern Wisconsin.

Gates said the supermarket pharmacies were too small to offer Aurora Pharmacy’s full array of services, such as home medical supplies, while the stores outside its service area, in eastern Wisconsin, could not be fully integrated within the Aurora system.