More Pharmacies, but Fewer Pharmacists in North Carolina

Aug. 6–North Carolina has the worst shortage of pharmacists in the country, yet the number of pharmacies across the state continues to rise.

This inverse relationship has made the prescription-drug business tough for those on both sides of the cash register, industry officials said yesterday.

More pharmacists are often forced to work longer hours while customers can face lengthy waits for medication, said Fred Eckel, the executive director of the N.C. Association of Pharmacists.

“It’s a supply and demand issue,” Eckel said. “It’s hard to keep the supply chain going as quickly as the demand chain.”

The demand for more pharmaceutical drug services has led to more chain drugstores opening businesses in both in the state and Forsyth County.

There were 1,615 retail pharmacies in the state last year — a 5.6 percent increase from 2002, according to the N.C. Board of Pharmacy, which oversees and licenses retail pharmacies. In 2000, there were about 1,480.

The number of retail pharmacies in Forsyth County is expected to increase to 60 this year, up from 52 in 2004 and 49 in 2003, according to the pharmacy board.

Health-care officials attributed the increase to more chain drugstores that are chasing the state’s aging baby-boomer population, trying to meet the demand for prescription drugs.

The increased demand has made it difficult for some pharmacists. At the independent Jonestown Pharmacy in Winston-Salem, pharmacist Ike Vlahos said that customers increased 20 percent last month, fueled by demand from elderly customers.

Vlahos and his wife, Kristi, must often both man the drugstore to handle the increased load, he said.

Most of the country faces a pharmacist shortage, but in North Carolina, the shortage is acute, according to a study by Pharmacy Manpower Project Inc., a pharmacist research organization based in California.

More pharmacy students are opting out of working in pharmacies once they graduate, instead seeking jobs in lower-stress areas such as insurance companies, officials said. In addition, heavier marketing efforts by drug companies have sent more people to the drugstore for newer drugs.

“When you really get into health-care, there’s so much room for improvement in the system,” said Katherine Knapp, the dean of the college of pharmacy at Touro University in California, who performed the study.

David Work, the pharmacy board’s executive director, suggested that more pharmacies hire pharmacy technicians to help handle the load. By state law, a licensed pharmacist must be in the store to oversee the business, even if more technicians are dispensing drugs, board officials said.

Meanwhile, national drugstores have no plans to slow their growth.

Carol Hively, a spokeswoman for Walgreen Co., one of the country’s largest drugstore chains, acknowledged that the company has targeted North Carolina for growth, because of the state’s baby-boomer population.

The company, based in Illinois, operates 71 stores in the state, up from the 46 stores it operated last year, Hively said. The company has four stores in Winston-Salem and plans to open two more in Forsyth County later this month.

She said she was aware of the state’s pharmacist shortage, but said that the company would not stop adding drugstores. “The business is there,” she said. “You have to service the customers.”

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