Walgreens, the nation’s largest drugstore chain, announced Wednesday the company is poised to expand its electronic health record (EHR) solution to some 8,000 locations by the end of summer 2013. 

Officials say expanding the EHR solution – currently deployed in upwards of 200 stores nationwide – is an effort to integrate the drugstore’s healthcare services further, specifically for immunizations and health testing. 

Walgreens tapped Greenway Medical Technologies for the drugstore’s WellHealth EHR, a component of the Walgreens HealthCloud initiative that supports the transformation of its traditional drugstores to health and daily living destinations. 

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Officials say the EHR will deliver to Walgreens pharmacy staff a single patient view capturing their immunization and health testing history with their prescription profile. Once rollout is complete, Walgreens pharmacy staff will have access to up-to-date patient immunization and health testing information combined with pharmacy information, regardless of the Walgreens location where a patient received the service. 

The EHR also allows for customers to schedule appointments and supports real-time medical billing.

“The deployment of EHR solutions supporting Walgreens community pharmacy, health and wellness initiatives is another milestone in our mutual goal of improving population health,” said Greenway President and CEO, Tee Green. “Providing valuable and far-reaching healthcare services emphasizing preventive medicine is paramount as patients increasingly become consumers of accessible and affordable care.”

Wednesday’s announcement builds on the Walgreens-Greenway relationship that began in 2010 with the deployment of Greenway’s integrated EHR, practice management and interoperability solution in Walgreens worksite health centers. These worksite centers offer primary and acute care and are managed by Take Care Health Systems, a wholly owned subsidiary of Walgreens.

Officials say the WellHealth EHR scalable functionality supports additional pharmacy, health and wellness services in the future, including integration with electronic prescribing and data exchange that tracks patients throughout the care continuum.

“With a view into a customer’s prescription, immunization and health testing record, our pharmacy staff can provide additional recommendations such as whether the customer is due for a specific immunization,” said Tim Theriault, Walgreens senior vice president and chief information officer.

The EHR solution, he added, “continues to deliver health information technology platforms that fit the innovative healthcare delivery models we are rolling out to consumer and employer markets. The deployment of EHR technology advances our pharmacy staff’s ability to provide integrated and comprehensive healthcare services in the communities where people live and work.”

In 2011, Walgreens’ fiscal sales amounted to $72 billion. The company operates 7,919 drugstores and some 700 health clinics nationwide.