Opioid availability in outpatient pharmacies in Washington State.

OBJECTIVE

To determine if opioids, both long and short acting, were widely available in pharmacies in Washington State, and to ascertain if availability was related to rural/urban location or socioeconomic factors.

METHODS

A mail survey of 1349 outpatient pharmacies with telephone follow-up of the nonresponders.

RESULTS

Over 90% of the responding pharmacies in Washington State have a broad supply of both long-acting and short-acting opioids. Pharmacies located in rural and urban areas did not have different availability. Those pharmacies in areas with a high percentage of nonwhite residents or a high percentage of residents below the poverty level were statistically more likely to have reduced availability, but the differences were not clinically significant.

DISCUSSION

Data from Washington State contrasts sharply with the reported data from metropolitan and rural areas of eastern and midwestern regions of the United States. Regional variations in all aspects of healthcare are common and often have defied explanation.