A simulation model for evaluating the accessibility and efficiency for a community pharmacy network

Community pharmacy is a critical component in healthcare delivery, yet significant disparities in access persist across geographic and socioeconomic communities. This paper presents a discrete event simulation-based approach to evaluate both geographic and functional access to community pharmacies. The model leverages three real-world data sources: high-resolution foot traffic data from a mobile-phone tracking database to capture pharmacy visit patterns; census-based vehicle ownership data to reflect population mobility; and real-world GIS-based travel networks to model spatial accessibility through road infrastructure. Our approach uniquely accounts for two modes of transportation in people’s pharmacy visits, queuing dynamics at pharmacies, and supply and demand patterns at pharmacies. The evaluation of accessibility is based on performance metrics, including travel time from residence to pharmacy, waiting time, queue length, and utilization at pharmacies. The simulation model is applied to Jefferson County, Kentucky. Results show that residents of western zip codes, where over 30% of individuals lack personal vehicles, experience longer travel times than those in other areas. Queuing delays and facility utilization also vary significantly by pharmacy type and location, with some facilities operating at limited capacity. Sensitivity analyses reveal that closures of high-demand pharmacies result in significant increases in both travel and waiting times in neighboring zip codes. Our simulation approach allows authorities to conduct scenario-based experiments to evaluate and prepare for the impact of pharmacy closures, demand fluctuations, and capacity changes.