Pharmacy Board data shows spike in pharmacy closures in Ohio

Ohio’s pharmacy closures have spiked in recent years, and stores have been closing in the communities that can least afford to lose them, according to a new data dashboard from the Ohio Board of Pharmacy (Source: “An alarming trend: Ohio pharmacy closures spike, openings lag,” Ohio Capital Journal, Feb. 19).
 
The Pharmacy Board released a new data tool that shows that the number of retail outpatient pharmacies in Ohio has fallen from 2,219 in 2015 to 1,869 last year. The 16% decrease in less than a decade comes as Ohio’s population grew by about 2.5%.
 
As part of its new dashboard, the Board of Pharmacy looked at where closures were happening compared to where the most vulnerable Ohioans live. To do that, its staff used mapping data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Social Vulnerability Index.
 
When the Board of Pharmacy overlaid closures since 2012 on the CDC vulnerability map, it became clear that pharmacies were abandoning vulnerable neighborhoods at a much higher rate. Nearly 60% of the closures occurred in high and medium-high vulnerability neighborhoods.