Some lack pharmacists
Jennifer Delgado - The Daily Iowan
Issue date: 12/19/07 Section: Metro
- Page 1 of 1
The 31 elderly residents from Pioneer Park, a nursing home in Lone Tree, do not have a pharmacy. Instead, they depend on a pharmaceutical provider from the Quad Cities to send their prescriptions.
In 2006, the state of Iowa gained 42 pharmacists, but a number of local towns and communities are still lacking these health-care providers.
"It's hard to support a pharmacy in a small town," Marge Comer said, a pharmacist employed at West Liberty Pharmacy. "Unless you've got a nursing home, it's very difficult, because the volume is not there."
Even with a special-care facility, there is no guarantee that small, rural communities in Iowa will get the drug therapy that they need.
At Pioneer Park, the prepackaged prescriptions are delivered to the nursing home as often as needed. If a crisis should arise, the facility is equipped with emergency boxes with basic medication.
"I don't know what we would do without [the drug company]," said Pioneer Park administrator Cris Vetter. "We'd have to go back to the drawing board and figure out how to access our medicine."
Besides creating contracts with companies, those without pharmacies have few options - they can travel to the nearest town or order their medication online, Comer said.
In total, there are 2,610 pharmacists in the state. By the close of 2006, every Iowa county had at least one pharmacist. Johnson County has 255, the second most after Polk County. Two hundred thirty-two reside in Iowa City alone, including those with teaching and administrative backgrounds, as well as in privately owned businesses.
The only pharmacy schools in Iowa are at the UI and Drake. Forty-six percent of pharmacists in Iowa are UI graduates, 29 percent are from Drake, and the remaining 25 percent come from schools all over the nation.
A shortage of pharmacists is not something new, said Roger Tracy, an assistant dean in the UI College of Medicine. While 138 new pharmacists entered the field in 2006, he said, 96 left the state, because of reasons including retirement, relocation, and health problems.
Although the salary for pharmacists in Iowa is lower than nationwide average - $86,590 compared with $93,500, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics - the cost of living in Iowa is lower than many other places, said Donald Letendre, the dean of the UI College of Pharmacy.
A critical step will be to make small-town pharmacies appealing to pharmacy students, he said. "We need to create avenues where opportunities like that are attractive," he said.
A dearth of pharmacists in rural areas could potentially force small-town residents to ignore their health problems, he said.
E-mail DI reporter Jennifer Delgado at:
jennifer-delgado@uiowa.edu
In 2006, the state of Iowa gained 42 pharmacists, but a number of local towns and communities are still lacking these health-care providers.
"It's hard to support a pharmacy in a small town," Marge Comer said, a pharmacist employed at West Liberty Pharmacy. "Unless you've got a nursing home, it's very difficult, because the volume is not there."
Even with a special-care facility, there is no guarantee that small, rural communities in Iowa will get the drug therapy that they need.
At Pioneer Park, the prepackaged prescriptions are delivered to the nursing home as often as needed. If a crisis should arise, the facility is equipped with emergency boxes with basic medication.
"I don't know what we would do without [the drug company]," said Pioneer Park administrator Cris Vetter. "We'd have to go back to the drawing board and figure out how to access our medicine."
Besides creating contracts with companies, those without pharmacies have few options - they can travel to the nearest town or order their medication online, Comer said.
In total, there are 2,610 pharmacists in the state. By the close of 2006, every Iowa county had at least one pharmacist. Johnson County has 255, the second most after Polk County. Two hundred thirty-two reside in Iowa City alone, including those with teaching and administrative backgrounds, as well as in privately owned businesses.
The only pharmacy schools in Iowa are at the UI and Drake. Forty-six percent of pharmacists in Iowa are UI graduates, 29 percent are from Drake, and the remaining 25 percent come from schools all over the nation.
A shortage of pharmacists is not something new, said Roger Tracy, an assistant dean in the UI College of Medicine. While 138 new pharmacists entered the field in 2006, he said, 96 left the state, because of reasons including retirement, relocation, and health problems.
Although the salary for pharmacists in Iowa is lower than nationwide average - $86,590 compared with $93,500, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics - the cost of living in Iowa is lower than many other places, said Donald Letendre, the dean of the UI College of Pharmacy.
A critical step will be to make small-town pharmacies appealing to pharmacy students, he said. "We need to create avenues where opportunities like that are attractive," he said.
A dearth of pharmacists in rural areas could potentially force small-town residents to ignore their health problems, he said.
E-mail DI reporter Jennifer Delgado at:
jennifer-delgado@uiowa.edu
Be the first to comment on this story