BALTIMORE — With the opening of a new store here in collaboration with Johns Hopkins Medicine (JHM), Walgreen Co. has re-emphasized the role of retail pharmacy in bringing new health and wellness services to communities, reinforced the benefits of pharmacy working with other health care providers to improve outcomes and lower costs and helped to revitalize a neighborhood providing employment ­opportunities.

The store, adjacent to the JHM campus, expands the relationship between the retailer and JHM, with both parties believing that it could serve as a new model for improving overall patient care.

“It is a great opportunity for us,” said Kermit Crawford, Walgreens president of pharmacy, health and wellness. “We’re going to work with the Johns Hopkins medical faculty on programs within this community that help lower overall health care costs. The pill is no longer the product. The product is the outcome.

“This is a significant next step in our relationship, leveraging the clinical expertise of Johns Hopkins Medicine and Walgreens expansive health care resources to create a retail hub for community-based care.”

The store incorporates a HealthCare Clinic staffed by nurse practitioners who work with JHM medical faculty to bring expanded health care access to the east Baltimore community. Besides health services, the “Well Experience’’ store features a selection of healthy food, conventional drug store products and a pharmacy.

Crawford and other Walgreens executives as well as city and community leaders pointed out that the HealthCare Clinic is the first Walgreens in-store retail clinic in Maryland.
Other offerings include student health services and chronic disease education and awareness programs with the potential for smoking cessation assistance, HIV testing and travel immunizations.

“These programs will provide a novel approach to population health and medical services,” said Patricia Brown, president of Johns Hopkins HealthCare. “They will benefit not only the surrounding community, but also form the level of health care collaboration that could serve as a national model.’’

As an extension of the collaboration Walgreens announced it will provide the initial funding for the new Brancati Center for the Advancement of Community Care.
The center, part of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, will develop and test new models of collaborative care to improve the health of communities using the skills and perspectives of pharmacists, nurse practitioners and others.

The center is named in honor of the late Frederick L. Brancati, Johns Hopkins’ longtime professor of medicine and epidemiology and director of the Division of General Internal Medicine. Walgreens and Johns Hopkins hope to raise between $10 million and $15 million in contributions over the next five years.