Some Facts about Pharmacists and Pharmacies

• Number of retail independent pharmacies – 18,958 (1)
• Number of chain retail pharmacies - 35,877 (1)
• Number of pharmacists - 229,740 (1)
• Median salary of pharmacists - $88,000 (1)
• Number of pharmacy technician working in retail pharmacies - 182,000 (ref)
• Pharmacists make approximately 150 million clarifying phone calls to physicians annually.
• More than half of calls to physicians concern pharmacy issues. (Source: Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) White Paper: A Call to Action: Eliminate Handwritten Prescriptions within 3 Years, ISMP 2000)
• 30% of prescriptions require pharmacy call backs (Hutchinson, NCVHS May 25, 2004)
• 900 million prescription-related telephone calls are placed annually (Hutchinson, ibid)
• One-fifth (20%) of pharmacy personnel time is spent solely on activities directly related to third-party issues (at a cost of approximately $1.18 per script).
• Of this portion of pharmacy personnel time, 3.7% is spent on script clarification and data entry (which is reduced by receiving an electronic script).
• The remaining 16.3% is spent handling issues related to prescription changes or rework due to eligibility, formulary and similar benefits coverage-related activities (which is reduced by receiving a prescription that was written with an awareness of patient benefits coverage). (Source: “Pharmacy Activity Cost and Productivity Study.” Arthur Anderson, LLP, funded by NACDS. November 1999)
• The number of vacancies for pharmacists, which nationwide jumped from 2,700 in 1998 to nearly 7,000 in 2001. (DHHS)

1. http://www.hayesdir.com/services.html

Facts from NCPA

• Independent pharmacy: $92 billion marketplace
• Independent pharmacy prescription sales: $85 billionIndependents dispense 1.5 billion prescriptions annually (42% of the retail prescriptions)
• Average independent pharmacy sales: $3.75 million up 5% over 2004
• Average prescription sales: $3.45 million up 5% over 2004
• 92% of annual sales are Rx medicines
• Average number of prescriptions per indepdentent pharmacy: 61,071 annually, 196 per day
• Over 33% of independent owners have ownership in two or more pharmacies
• Overall, the average independent owns 1.9 pharmacies
• Average independent employs 12.8 full-time equivalent (FTE) employees
• Average independent employs 2.8 FTE pharmacists (including owner)
• Average independent employs 4.3 FTE technicians
• 56% of drugs dispensed by independent pharmacies are generics

Year end 2005 sales for all traditional drug stores (chain and independents) reached an estimated $174.2 billion. This is a 4.1% increase over the 2004 NACDS estimate.