Walgreens Computer Outage Delays Prescriptions Nationwide

Getting a prescription filled at Walgreens may take a lot longer than usual this week due to an ongoing outage of the drugstore chain’s pharmacy computer database.

Pharmacists have been filling prescriptions manually since the system went down Tuesday morning, causing delays for customers at all 8,200 Walgreens drugstores across the U.S., a company spokesman said Thursday.

“We have been experiencing technical issues with our pharmacy systems,” said Jim Cohn, a Walgreens spokesman. “Our pharmacies are still able to fill prescriptions and process most insurance claims; however, some patients may experience longer wait times until certain functionalities are fully restored.”

Cohn said that the outage occurred after overnight maintenance, and that the company, based in suburban Chicago, is “working diligently” to correct the issue.

“We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause,” Cohn said.

Walgreens Boots Alliance, the largest drugstore chain in the U.S., processed more than 856 million prescriptions last year, Cohn said.

Walgreens had sales of more than $76 billion during fiscal year 2014.