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Pharmacy access varied across US counties
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Although the number of pharmacies in the United States has been increasing, access to their services varies greatly by county, with a range of 0 to 13.6 per 10,000 people in 2015.
“Numerous studies examine patients’ access to health care, but few have explored patients’ access to pharmacies,” Dima Qato, PharmD, MPH, PhD, assistant professor of pharmacy systems, outcomes and policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said in a press release. “Pharmacy accessibility may be an overlooked contributor to nonadherence, which is an important public health concern.”
To assess current trends in the accessibility of community pharmacies and their characteristics — including 24-hour service, drive-ups, home delivery, e-prescribing and multilingual staffing — between 2007 and 2015, the researchers conducted a retrospective analysis in which data collected from the National Council for Prescription Drug Programs were used to collect county-level population demographics. Information that was obtained included the percentage of non-English speaking residents, those with an ambulatory disability and those aged 65 years or older.
Additionally, Qato and colleagues attempted to observe whether certain characteristics were more common in certain pharmacy types, such as retail pharmacies or in clinic-based pharmacies, through several counties.
Between 2007 and 2015, the amount of community pharmacies increased from 63,752 to 67,753 (6.3%), with retail chains (40%) and independent pharmacies (35%) being the most common types of pharmacies found. The remaining pharmacies were mass retailer (12%), food store (10%), clinic-based (3%) or government (<1%) pharmacies. Excluding the formation of e-prescribing, the characteristics of these pharmacies did not significantly change over the included time.
At the national level, no change was observed in the number of pharmacies per 10,000 people (2.11); however, a wide range of accessible pharmacies was detected across counties. Many of the pharmacies examined did not offer easy access to prescriptions, including home delivery.
The availability of these services depended greatly on the type of pharmacy providing medications. The researchers note that home delivery services were available from less than 1% of mass retailers and 67% of independent stores. These services were not impacted by the population within the county with an ambulatory disability or those aged 65 years and older.
“Pharmacy retailers should consider monitoring population demographics to better ensure that they offer services and accommodations that specifically target the needs of the local population,” Qato said in the release. – by Katherine Bortz
Disclosure: GC Alexander is chair of the FDA’s Peripheral and Central Nervous System Advisory Committee; serves as a paid consultant to PainNavigator, a mobile startup to improve patents’ pain management; serves as a paid consultant to IMS Health; and serves on an IMS Health scientific advisory board. This arrangement has been reviewed by Johns Hopkins University in accordance with its conflict of interest policies. This does not alter adherence to PLoS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.
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