Nebraska’s one-pharmacy towns seeking a remedy

Creutz Drug Store, which the same family has run in Wausa, Neb., for 113 years, is prepared to close this year. Norm Creutz, 73, has passed the word that he’s ready to retire. With no other Creutz (pronounced “Crootz”) to take over, the book will close on possibly the oldest drug store in the state run by a single family, according to state and Nebraska Pharmacist Association officials.

Although town leaders in Wausa are mounting a unique effort to keep a drug store in the community of 636, the end of Creutz Drug is a sign of the times for many small-town, mom-and-pop pharmacies. There are 499 licensed pharmacies in Nebraska. Each year a few more independent stores close or sell out to chains, said Joni Cover of the Pharmacist Association.

Norm Creutz doesn’t think pharmacy schools do enough to encourage graduates to buy their own main street stores. Alas, said both Creutz and Cover, the money is better, hours are shorter and responsibilities are fewer when you work for someone else. The two also said they think the advent of the federal government’s prescription drug plan for the elderly, known as Medicare Part D, has hastened the exodus of small-town druggists. Reimbursement rates are low and reimbursement checks are “painfully slow” to arrive, Cover said.

In Wausa, 40 miles north of Norfolk, a business group is exploring whether the drug store could fill prescriptions via e-mail for other pharmacies that are short-staffed. “We don’t want to lose any business on main street. That’s just one less reason to come to town,” said LaVonne Anderson, owner of Wausa Locker.