The ABC11 I-Team in conjunction with the ABC Owned Television Stations found that 45% of zip codes in the state do not have a pharmacy, creating multiple ‘pharmacy deserts’.
North Carolina has an average of three pharmacies per 10 square miles. But more than 90 percent of the counties in the state report even less.
Wake County has four times as many pharmacies located in Granville County, where Gary Bowman has led the professional pharmacy for nearly 30 years.
“We pride ourselves on knowing who our customers are, calling them by name, we’re the same people who go out to dinner with them, go to church with them, go to small ball games with them,” explains Bowman from. .
As an established and trusted health professional, Bowman said people are now turning to him for advice and news about the COVID-19 vaccine.
“Oh, many phone calls.” Do you have the vaccine? Are you getting the vaccine? When can I get it? Can I be on a list? “” He said.
He is one of nine pharmacies in the province with more than 60,000 residents.
Bowman said two other independent pharmacies have closed over the years.
Stephanie Kiser, pharmacist and director of rural health at UNC, said there are fears of more closures.
“When we see nearby pharmacies and we see that people have to travel greater distances to access a pharmacy that feels unfamiliar and often doesn’t foster the trust of that healthcare provider-patient relationship they would like to have,” she explains. from.
Closures in rural areas also widen access gaps between urban and rural communities.
With 46 pharmacies per 10 square miles, Mecklenburg County has the most pharmacies in the state. While Mecklenburg County is also one of the most populous areas, it has 2,300 times more pharmacies in the same space compared to Northampton County, where there are only two pharmacies per 1,000 square miles.
Although these inequalities have been around for decades, they are now facing more serious consequences.
“We really recognize the value of these pharmacies in these small communities that may be the closest place to get a vaccine,” Kiser said.
Transportation and distance from a vaccine can be another barrier for people who are not 100% on board with the COVID-19 vaccine.
“For some older adults, driving around the county is really a long journey, they don’t want to take the journey,” Kiser explained. “The thought of getting in the car and driving 30 kilometers can be a huge deterrent.”
Unfortunately, these pharmacy deserts usually occur in rural communities with an older population.
The ABC11 I-Team also found that many of the zip codes without a pharmacy are typically in more poverty-stricken communities where Black and Latino residents live. A finding that means the COVID-19 vaccine will be more difficult for poor, black, and Latino residents to obtain; the same communities that have already been disproportionately affected by the virus.
Russell’s Pharmacy and Shoppe opened in East Durham two years ago to meet just this need.
“You’re looking at a historically marginalized area, there are a lot of people who don’t have that much transportation, they don’t have that many ways to access, just drive to the CVS or Walgreens or the Walmart, so they need something in the community that is very close to them and to which they have access, ”said Dr. Darius Russell, the pharmacy manager and owner.
The nearest pharmacies to his company are both chains and are a 30 minute walk away.
Russell said being in the community also gives him an opportunity to develop relationships and trust his patients; a relationship that could aid in the COVID-19 vaccination effort.
“Having a pharmacy nearby really helps build that trust so people don’t feel like I’m just going to a big conglomerate. I’m actually going to a place that I know will tell me the truth, they’re really going to tell me what to hear, ”Russell said.
While pharmacists like Russell are in a good position to give the COVID-19 vaccine, they are not yet part of the North Carolina vaccination process.
“They are a bit frustrated because they feel that they could make a difference in their community if they had access to the vaccine,” explains Dr. Penny Shelton, the director of the North Carolina Association of Pharmacists.
Just as there are levels to be vaccinated, the state has levels about who can provide the vaccine and when. Pharmacists are currently ranked 4th, a position where many have to wait until February or March to administer doses.
“The biggest challenge at the moment is supply. Having local pharmacies, whether you’re in the countryside, suburbs, or in the city, that helps vaccinate patients, have the supply and allocate that supply. is insufficient at this point to support wider distribution throughout our state and not just North Carolina and other states as well, ”Shelton said.
Kiser has worked with other health experts in the state, pointing to West Virginia as a model for North Carolina.
With more than 80% of the doses administered, West Virginia is at the top of the US for vaccine distribution, according to the latest vaccine data from the CDC. More than 11% of state residents over the age of 16 have received the vaccine; one percent better than Alaska.
Kiser and others say that much of the state’s success has come from giving pharmacists, especially rural pharmacists, vaccines to distribute.
“If you are going to focus on older adults and you really want to improve access, relying on pharmacies should have been sort of the bottom line in my mind, because there are already people in every community of our state who often have a relationship with their pharmacist and their community pharmacist, ”said Gina Upchurch, Senior PharmAssist’s executive director.
Her nonprofit helps Durham seniors pay for, access, and manage medications. Now the group, like many others, has become a resource for vaccinating residents.
Upchurch said that while it’s a waiting game everywhere, it’s even harder to get answers in the countryside.
“I wish my parents live in Durham County now. My parents live in Rockingham, ”she said. “I depend on their community pharmacist to get the vaccine … They feel comfortable with him, he will come to the parking lot and give it to them and that works well for my parents, but it’s just waiting. “
Russell and Bowman also play the waiting game; Undergoing intensive training, getting to know the processes of the state in the hope of quickly getting assigned doses.
Both pharmacists said they had to invest time and money to become a future vaccination site. Many independent pharmacies calling ABC11 said they would not offer the vaccine.
“It wasn’t just, ‘Okay, I want the vaccine, so send it to me,’” Bowman explained. “We had to go through a lot of training and a lot of processes to make sure we could go through that adequately and that was important. I wanted to be a place where people could come and get vaccinated.”
Shelton said that while North Carolina waits for more supplies, multiple groups in communities are brainstorming creative partnerships to increase access to the vaccine.
Earlier this month, the state health service announced the allocation of $ 2.5 million to provide free transportation to vaccination sites.
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