After reading an interview with Dima Qato regarding pharmacy access and pharmacy deserts, and checking out her team’s research paper on the topic, I decided to explore pharmacy access in Wilmington, NC. From casual observations, it appears that there may be misalignment between supply and demand in the local community.
When driving around Wilmington, NC, the density of pharmacies in some areas is comparable to the density of Starbucks in some major cities. While that isn’t necessarily a bad thing (especially when you are in need of either cold medicine or a coffee), it is something that has caught my eye recently. Was what I noticed the result of a convenience sample because of the roads I drove on, or am I living in a city with high pharmacy density?
So I started out by getting the most recent population numbers available (from July 1, 2016) for New Hanover county: 223,483, and the city of Wilmington: 117,525
Then I did a search of pharmacies within Wilmington using chain store location websites, and Google maps searches, to see how many existed. My initial estimate is 37 pharmacies within Wilmington, meaning there is 1 pharmacy for every 3,176 people. Applying Qato’s method of looking at pharmacies per 10,000 people, that puts Wilmington at 3.15, while national county averages seem closer to 2.
I then broadened my search to look at pharmacies for the whole county, and that search yielded only 3 additional pharmacies. And, when applying the same math as above, for 40 pharmacies within New Hanover county, there is 1 pharmacy for every 5,587 people. And, when looking at pharmacies per 10,000 people, that puts New Hanover at 0.56.
Without needing to do the math, it became obvious when looking at the county map and overlaying pharmacy locations, that facilities are located in distinctive pockets and not evenly distributed throughout the county. This means that perhaps some people have very easy access to their choice of pharmacies (which could be both beneficial and harmful), while others have limited or no access to a pharmacy within miles of their homes. I did not have data available to look at how the pharmacy locations relate to poverty level within the city, but that seems like an area worth exploring. And, I was not able to compare census tract population numbers with pharmacies, which might also provide insight.
As the Wilmington area continues to grow, it seems critical to consider how locations of health services (especially pharmacies) could impact health and well-being within the community.
Why is pharmacy placement a public health issue? While pharmacies are often perceived by the public as the place you go to pick up medicine, the role of pharmacies and pharmacists is much broader. The Center for Health Security wrote a thorough summary of the many ways pharmacies are key partners in public health challenges including their role in slowing the spread of antibiotic resistance, supporting emergency preparedness and response, and increasing access to preventive and screening services.
[Methodology note: This analysis was done without access to robust GIS data, and no access to retail pharmacy data. I recognize that may have resulted in errors in both the data and calculations above.]