Giant-Landover Offers Travel Health Clinics
Giant Food LLC is now providing pre-travel consultations, immunizations and advice at select stores. Giant Food Travel Health Clinics are staffed by specially trained pharmacists.
"These 18 pharmacies have always administered vaccines (some for travel illness prevention), but we have recently provided training and resources for our pharmacists to provide a more comprehensive service," a company spokesman told Progressive Grocer. The clinics relaunched in their current form last month.
A pre-travel visit to the clinics consists of current and destination-specific recommendations for a $30 fee. Recommendations may include immunizations, prophylactic medications like anti-malarial drugs, and specific health advice to prevent and treat illness. The clinics also administer immunizations to help prevent such diseases as hepatitis, yellow fever, measles, meningitis, polio and typhoid. According to the company spokesman, the clinics' pharmacists "prepare a plan for [prospective travelers] to receive immunizations, medications and over-the-counter products that will keep them healthy during and after their return home."
"We pride ourselves in offering the highest-quality service to support our pharmacy customers' busy lives, and that includes travel-abroad plans," noted Gayle Shields, director of pharmacy operations at Landover, Md.-based Giant Food. "Whether it's travel for business, service or study abroad, or leisure, our Travel Health Clinic pharmacists will work with each customer to provide specialized assistance and consultation customized to travel destinations."
Giant Food Travel Health Clinics are located within stores in Alexandria, Arlington, Ashburn, Charlottesville, Centreville, Fairfax, Fredericksburg, Haymarket, Lorton, Manassas, McLean, Stafford, Spotsylvania, and Woodbridge, Va., as well as Washington, D.C.
An Ahold USA company, Giant Food operates 170 supermarkets in Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and the District of Columbia, employing about 20,000 associates. Included within the 170 stores are 157 full-service pharmacies.