The pandemic has not significantly shaped Americans' feelings about in-person pharmacy visits, according to survey responses released May 21 by the Alliance of Community Health Plans.
The survey, which involved 1,263 adults from ages 18 to 74, found that 41 percent of respondents had delayed nonemergency healthcare appointments and 42 percent felt uncomfortable visiting the hospital for treatment.
However, the survey also revealed the following insights about respondents' attitudes toward pharmacies during the pandemic:
- Forty-nine percent reported feeling "very comfortable" picking up prescriptions at their pharmacy and speaking with their pharmacists.
- Forty-seven percent received a new prescription in the last 90 days.
- Ninety percent of respondents who received a new prescription in the last 90 days did so at a local retail pharmacy.
- Thirty-nine percent of respondents reported feeling comfortable undergoing COVID-19 testing at a pharmacy.
- Twenty-four percent used a mail-order pharmacy service in the last 90 days.
- Nine percent used their local pharmacy's home delivery service in the last 90 days.
"This consumer confidence presents an enormous opportunity for pharmacists to support a strained health care system because the same consumers are delaying visits with other health care providers due to safety concerns," Susan Cantrell, CEO of AMCP, said in a news release.