COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio Board of Pharmacy recently launched a new dashboard to track the status of pharmacies across the state and identify trends.
The Ohio Pharmacy Access dashboard uses Board of Pharmacy licensing data to provide users with a visualization of where pharmacy openings and closures are occurring and offers insights into how closures are impacting access to pharmacy services in Ohio.
Last year, 191 pharmacies closed in Ohio. All of them were large chain locations. As a result, the total number of pharmacies in the state decreased by 7 percent, from 2,009 to 1,869, in 2024. It is the first time the state has been under 2,000 pharmacies in more than a decade.
“Having a pharmacy nearby is critical to the health and safety of Ohioans, especially those who depend on prescription medications every day,” said Steven W. Schierholt, director of the Ohio Board of Pharmacy. “As the pharmacy market evolves in Ohio, it is imperative that we have a tool to help policymakers and local community leaders alike stay up to speed and even get ahead of emerging trends.”
The new dashboard, which will be updated monthly, allows users to view data on pharmacy access around the state, including:
- Pharmacy Trends: Provides an analysis of openings and closings of pharmacies by type (e.g., independent, small chain, large chain).
- Pharmacy Closure Comparisons: Analyzes pharmacy closures based on certain characteristics (urban/rural, pharmacy type, social vulnerability index).
- Pharmacy Deserts: Provides a geographic visualization of areas that lack access to pharmacy services (sometimes referred to as “pharmacy deserts”) by census blocks. For census blocks that are rural, this means not having a pharmacy within 10 miles. For census blocks that are urban, this means not having a pharmacy within 1 mile.
Pictured at top: Camilla Hancock fills a prescription at Basin Pharmacy in Basin, Wyo., on Feb. 21, 2024. (AP Photo | Mike Clark)