What is Being Done to Address Pharmacy Deserts in the US?
Cencora representatives with expertise into pharmacy desert insights joined Drug Topics to discuss issues in pharmacy access and what is being done to address them.
With ongoing concerns about a depleting pharmacy industry, the result of communities becoming pharmacy deserts has garnered increased attention in recent years. As overarching solutions are being considered, some industry experts have hit the ground running and are using expert data to bring the issue of pharmacy deserts to the forefront.
“Pharmacists are providing clinical advice, testing, immunizations, and many other necessary services to maintain good health. A pharmacy desert is really where patients don't have access to those services because there's not a pharmacy that's accessible in the market,” said Jennifer Zilka, Senior Vice President of Community and Specialty Pharmacy at Cencora, and President of Good Neighbor Pharmacy.
In the most recent episode of Over the Counter, Zilka was joined by her colleague Kyle Pudenz, DBA, Senior Vice President of Data & Analytics at Cencora.
“If we're able to provide our pharmacists better insights and information about the presence of communities and for them to proactively reach out and address these patients, maybe that changes the definition of pharmacy deserts altogether,” said Pudenz.
Zilka has expertise in overseeing a network of community pharmacies while Pudenz provides insights into patient populations and communities across the country. They sat down with Drug Topics to discuss how their team is identifying and defining pharmacy deserts. They also explored what’s being done to stop the spread and what they hope the future of the pharmacy industry will look like.
“Currently, there are growing concerns in the United States over the limited access to pharmacies in certain areas,” according to Cencora. “There are 150 counties where there is no pharmacy, and nearly 4.8 million people who live in a county where there’s only one pharmacy for every 10,000 residents or more. In recent years, several factors, including reimbursement challenges, rising costs, changing consumer behavior, and staff shortages, have forced many pharmacies to close, further worsening access to pharmacy services.”
Stay tuned for weekly podcast episodes on Over the Counter every Thursday afternoon. Check out our previous episode with Chris Robinson, MD, PhD, who discussed the myriad of emerging technologies being researched for the future of pain management.
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