Loveland to lose its only 24-hour pharmacy

The only nonhospital pharmacy that offers 24-hour service in Loveland will cut back its hours next week.

The Walgreens at 205 E. Eisenhower Blvd. had operated a 24-hour pharmacy since it opened in 2001, according to store manager Amy Cornell, but it will reduce those hours next Wednesday.

The new pharmacy hours will be 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday. The rest of the store will remain open 24 hours a day.

After the change, the closest 24-hour pharmacies will be in Fort Collins, at 2190 W. Drake Road, and Greeley, at 3700 W. 10th St., Cornell said.

The only 24-hour pharmacy in Boulder County, the Longmont Walgreens at 11th Avenue and Main Street, also will cut its pharmacy hours.

"(The decision) was based on seasonal business changes, implementation of a new staffing model and also (Walgreens) no longer being part of the Express Scripts pharmacy network," spokeswoman Vivika Panagiotakakos said by phone this week from Walgreens' corporate headquarters in Deerfield, Ill., just outside Chicago.

She said discussions of limiting pharmacy hours at certain stores began months ago, but the company had taken steps in the interim to reduce expenses without cutting pharmacy hours.

Those steps included implementing a hiring freeze at the company's headquarters, instituting new hiring guidelines for its stores nationwide and finding other ways to cut costs.

"We tried to take these proactive measures first to help avoid reductions," Panagiotakakos said. "This is very store-specific and market-specific, so it's not something that's happening across the board."

She said that no pharmacists are losing their jobs, and none are having hours cut unless they requested it.

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Loveland to lose its only 24-hour pharmacy