Residents of remote Wheeler County will soon have an easier way to access prescription medications without long drives to nearby towns.
Murray’s Drug, a small independent pharmacy chain based in Morrow County, is rolling out a new free-standing medication locker in Fossil so that patients can pick up their medications at more convenient times without having to drive 30 minutes to the nearest pharmacy.
Murray’s Drug, which has locations in Heppner, Boardman and Condon, plans to set up the pharmacy locker at Asher Community Health Center in Fossil and have it running by the end of the month.
The new locker system features a touch screen patients can use to unlock the locker that contains their medication. There’s also a screen for live video chat consultation with Murray’s pharmacy staff in Condon, said John Murray, second-generation owner of the family pharmacy chain.
Murray said some of the lockers will be refrigerated to properly store temperature-sensitive drugs, and that patients will be given a unique code that they can enter into the kiosk to retrieve their prescriptions. He said that the locker system also includes a dedicated phone receiver so that patients can connect with a pharmacist if they have questions or require a consultation.
More health
“People in Wheeler County drive sometimes up to an hour to get to our pharmacy in Gilliam County just to pick up a prescription that they need for the day,” Murray said. “We see people delaying or skipping doses because of this, which can be harmful to their health.”
Oregon ranks second-worst in the nation for pharmacy accessibility, with fewer retail pharmacies per resident than every state but Alaska. The state also has some of the lowest number of independently-owned drug stores — more than 70% of the retail pharmacy market is controlled by national chains.
The rise of big box chains like Walgreens, Rite Aid and CVS over recent decades pushed out many of the state’s small, mom-and-pop pharmacies. But Rite Aid’s bankruptcy in 2023 and Walgreens’ possible sale to private equity show that even large chains aren’t immune from the challenges that have shuttered independently-owned drug stores, such as falling prescription reimbursements, shifting consumer habits and staffing woes.
In Oregon, two counties — Wheeler and Sherman — don’t have any pharmacies at all, while Gilliam and Grant counties each have only one. Murray’s Drug serves patients such areas.
Murray said his staff had already been delivering medications to the Asher Community Health Center — the federally qualified health center that serves about 1,200 patients and will house the pharmacy lockers in Fossil. But he said the clinic doesn’t have the equipment to store certain temperature sensitive drugs.
Murray said he’s working with the clinic and the Oregon State Pharmacy Association, a lobby group that represents independent pharmacies, to run the locker service.
Brian Mayo, the executive director of the state pharmacy association, said the pharmacy lockers will also help relieve the workload of staff at the Condon pharmacy and at the Fossil clinic, where there’s a shortage of providers available to dispense medications to patients.
Mayo said the project is funded by a rural health innovation grant offered by the Eastern Oregon Coordinated Care Organization, a management care organization of the state’s Medicaid program. He said the association hopes to find more funding to open more pharmacy lockers around the state.
-- Kristine de Leon covers consumer health, retail, small business and data enterprise stories. Reach her at kdeleon@oregonian.com.
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