NACDS represents traditional drug stores, supermarkets, and mass merchants with pharmacies - from regional chains with few stores to national companies.
Innovative programs of chain pharmacies and their supplier partners deliver unsurpassed value – improving health and wellness and reducing healthcare costs. Through face-to-face counseling, the pharmacist-patient relationship helps people take medications safely and correctly. This improved “medication adherence,” means a higher quality of life, and the prevention of costly treatments. In addition to this widely appreciated role of pharmacists, innovative community pharmacy services – vaccinations, health education, screenings, disease management and more – also contribute to the modern healthcare delivery system.
Community pharmacies are highly accessible. Nearly all Americans live within five miles of a community pharmacy. Pharmacists are highly trusted professionals as well. In the annual Gallup survey of honesty and integrity across professions, including but not limited to healthcare, pharmacists have ranked in the top three for nine consecutive years, and in every year but one since 1981.
http://www.nacds.org