The Financial Status of Community Pharmacies: Çorum Province

Community pharmacies have financial difficulties due to reasons such as economic crises in recent years, increased competition, reimbursement cuts, decreasing drug prices and profit ratio, and increasing operation costs. The main purpose of this study was to evaluate the financial status of community pharmacies in Çorum and to guide future sectoral financial studies.

One of the most commonly used method to evaluate the financial status and performance of companies is the "ratio analysis method". This ratio analysis has been conducted by accounting that data of 51 of the 93 community pharmacies operating in Çorum city.

Considering the results of the ratio analysis in general, the pharmacies in Çorum have liquidity problems. More than half of the pharmacies could not pay their short-term debts with their current assets in the years mentioned in the study. Community pharmacies take more debit/credit to pay their short-term debts. The debit burden of the pharmacies has increased in the years mentioned in the study. Pharmacies have a low stock turnover ratio, and their inventory managements are insufficient.

It is seen that the main reason for the financial problems in community pharmacies is the low efficiency and productivity loss in resource management. It is thought that it would be beneficial to provide financial management training at the undergraduate level in the faculties of pharmacy and to provide vocational trainings within the Turkish Pharmacists' Association (TEB). In addition, an effective accounting system for community pharmacies should be prepared and implemented together by the TEB and relevant institutions.