HEALTH EQUITY
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Appendix 1 - Transportation infrastructure overlay on pharmacy desert and non-desert geography in Jefferson County , Louisville , Kentucky .
Alam , M . M ., Bai , L ., & Abedi , S . ( 2024 ). An optimization approach to evaluating accessibility to community pharmacies . International Journal of Management Science and Engineering Management , 1 – 12 . https :// doi . org / 10.1080 / 17509653.2024.2377159
area to leave the medications , there are risks of loss of necessary medicines to theft from the home . Further , even if a person has a secured site of delivery , if they are covered by Kentucky Medicaid , there is no mail order benefit as there is with commercial health plans .
2 .) Non-traditional pharmacies – This includes physical stores such as Walmart , Target and even Dollar General and grocers such as Kroger and Meijer . However , those large chains typically avoid putting stores into the areas they view as having a lower profit contribution . Kroger has stepped up in Louisville with a few stores in the otherwise pharmacy deserts .
3 .) Home delivery – Amazon has been making home deliveries all over Jefferson County for years . They have hired local people who know the neighborhoods , giving a greater sense of package delivery . It was only logical that Amazon , followed by Walmart and Target , would get into the prescription delivery business . However , this form of home delivery is not covered by Kentucky Medicaid .
4 .) Physician and provider directed home delivery – Family Health Centers in Louisville and the Park-Duvalle Health Centers do arrange for home delivery of prescribed medicines , but only if the individual is being seen at their clinics and under the care of one of their providers . This makes it a limited help , as the individual must have been treated in their offices but just could not get to the pharmacy .
5 .) Return of independent pharmacies in pharmacy deserts ? – Independent pharmacies which have developed local neighborhood trust still exist in this world of chain retail store pharmacies , and there are some which exclusively do compounding . The UofL pharmacy accessibility study learned that the community sorely misses the last independent pharmacy in West Louisville because this pharmacy knew customers by name , anticipated their needs and reached out to them with delivery service and follow up calls when in need . Recently , two young entrepreneurs are working hard to launch the first Black-owned pharmacy in 100 years in the Russell neighborhood . 8 Good Brothers RX is a fledgling pharmacy getting ready to open on West Broadway . The two entrepreneurs are working to address the pharmacy service desert based on personal experience of lack of access to medications and loss of a parent .
6 .) Other signs of hope – The new Norton Hospital in West Louisville is spawning additional hope in that part of West
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