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WEST DES MOINES, Iowa — Helping patients live healthier lives is Angie Nelson’s top priority. As senior vice president of pharmacy at Hy-Vee, Nelson leads the company’s largest department, which includes more than 275 retail pharmacies across the Midwest.
Throughout her remarkable 23-year career at Hy-Vee, Nelson has spearheaded a number of initiatives to increase health care access and improve patients’ overall health.
Under Nelson’s leadership, Hy-Vee joined the Federal Retail Pharmacy program in 2021 and helped lead COVID-19 vaccination efforts across the Midwest.
“The pandemic really highlighted our pharmacy capa-bilities and allowed our pharmacists to operate at the top of their license,” says Nelson.
Since the pandemic, Hy-Vee has seen major growth in immunizations for COVID-19, flu and RSV, and has transformed into a vaccination destination for the Midwest. The provider has also leveraged its fleet of mobile health units to bring vaccinations to communities and workplaces
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Angie Nelson
To support the increased pharmacy demand, Nelson established a pharmacy technician apprenticeship in 2021 that allows pharmacy technicians to become certified to provide immunizations. This program not only helps employees advance in their career but also helps attract job applicants to the company, says Nelson.
In recent years, Nelson and her team have added more health and wellness services to Hy-Vee pharmacies, including over-the-counter hearing aids, talking prescription labels, online vaccination scheduling and prescription text message notifications.
Nelson also oversees Hy-Vee’s six regional pharmacy fulfillment centers, which support Hy-Vee’s pharmacies by filling prescriptions and reducing administrative tasks. This enables Hy-Vee’s pharmacy staff to turn their time and focus to serving patients and operating at the top of their license. Through the fulfillment centers, Nelson also has launched pharmacy mail order services, shipping prescriptions to patients across the U.S.
Most recently, Nelson spearheaded Hy-Vee’s newest partnership with Soda Health to launch a new Smart Benefits program that allows Medicare Advantage, Medicaid and other benefit recipients to receive personalized health and wellness benefits across all Hy-Vee locations. As part of this program, Nelson is combining forces with Hy-Vee’s dietitian team to help individuals learn how to manage their health through nutrition and preventative measures like biometric screenings.
“We are looking at our patients’ health more broadly by combining our resources as a grocer and a pharmacy to help our patients in their journey to better health,” says Nelson.
