Washington: Basin Pharmacy More prescriptions filled in rural North WyomingIt is also the major healthcare access point for the town of about 1,300 people and the surrounding area. It sells catheters, colostomy supplies and diabetes test strips. The storage room contains items people depend on to survive, such as a dozen cans of food for patients who have to eat through tubes.

The pharmacy fills prescriptions in bulk for the county jail, the state retirement center and youth group homes. Some patients come from Jackson, which is five hours away by car, for specialty services.

Pharmacist Craig Jones goes home when no one else can, answers his phone at all hours of the night and stops by church to talk about bowel movements. Yet Jones keeps a stack of his own paychecks on a desk in the back of his pharmacy. Four months worth, uncashed.

“Every year, the situation is getting a little worse,” Jones said. Financial pressures on your business.

Rural PharmaciesWhether they’re independent or a chain, they can be a touchstone of their communities. Staff know everyone’s name and medications, answer questions about residents’ mail-order prescriptions or can recognize symptoms of serious illness.

But rural pharmacies’ business models face constant pressure to the point that they sometimes have to close. Several largely rural states have the lowest number of pharmacies per ZIP code in the world, according to an AP analysis of data from 49 states and the National Council for Prescription Drug Programs.

The nearest pharmacy to Basin Pharmacy is eight miles away in Greybull, and was opened by Jones and two other pharmacists after its predecessor, a department store chain, went bankrupt.

When a pharmacy closes in a rural area, the community feels its loss.

In Herscher, Illinois, the news came suddenly that CVS would be closing in early March.

Mayor Shannon Sweeney met with CVS representatives and urged them to postpone a decision to close the store for her village of 1,500, located 80 miles south of Chicago, but she said the company told her the storefront wasn’t generating enough revenue.

Access to a pharmacy CVS spokesman Matt Blanchett told The Associated Press that’s an important consideration, but the company also considers local market dynamics, population changes and the number of stores in the area that sell similar products. He confirmed the meeting with Sweeney but did not directly answer questions about what financial issues were behind the store closings. (AP) NPK NPK