NACDS, Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security highlight pharmacy’s role in health equity

From December 2021 to January 2022, the National Association of Chain Drug Stores and the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security conducted a national radio tour to further promote their joint report.

The “Striving Toward Health Equity in COVID-19 — The Role of Pharmacies in a National Response,” initiative demonstrated the ways in which local pharmacies can be further leveraged to enhance equity for even more patients. 

[Read more: NACDS reaffirms pharmacy's efforts to solve opioid abuse]

Spokespeople for the collaborative radio tour included:

• Crystal Watson, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School;
• Christie Boutte, NACDS’ senior vice president of reimbursement, innovation and advocacy; and
• Sara Roszak, NACDS’ senior vice president of health and wellness strategy and policy. 

“There is still a huge amount of inequity throughout our country. Black people are still two times as likely to die from COVID-19 as White people; Hispanic or Latino persons are 2.3 times more likely to die; and American Indian and Native folks are about 2.4 times as likely to die throughout the pandemic. [The NACDS and Johns Hopkins health equity report] just draws in on some of those inequities and offers some solutions,” Roszak said.

[Read More: NACDS highlights members’ role during COVID-19 pandemic in U.S. Chamber of Commerce report]

When it came to discussing the role pharmacies play in providing equitable access to the public, Watson said, “I think pharmacies play an important role in trying to provide equitable access to people. Pharmacies are actually pretty well placed to do this because about 90% of the US population actually lives within five miles of a pharmacy.”

Emphasizing the trust and accessibility of local pharmacies and pharmacists, and the role that they play in helping the nation achieve better health for all, Boutte said, “Pharmacies do have the ability to extend that reach [to critical clinical care] and get to those hard-to-reach populations and rural and urban areas in some instances. [There’s] a level of comfort with the pharmacy where folks are more comfortable going to the pharmacy and talking to someone they know and trust. And that has helped a lot in making sure that there are more access points to care — especially in the COVID-19 pandemic with testing and now vaccines.”