Why don't hospitals have pharmacies for the public

[ZephyrHawk]

Sometimes they do, but the reason some do not is because of money and legal concerns. Most hospitals are tax exempt nonprofit corporations. Because they are tax exempt they do not have to pay any real estate tax on their hospital grounds; provided that those grounds are used for tax-exempt purposes. However, a pharmacy that serves the public (as opposed to one dedicated to serving only hospital inpatients as a division of the hospital) is ultimately a for profit entity. Just like a restaurant or a store they are taxable, so the space that area takes up is taxable. Additionally, who owns the pharmacy? Well, often its a consortium of folks involved in other healthcare arenas (like doctors). That opens up a whole host of concerns that the average person really doesn't care about (and which as a healthcare attorney, I pretty much despise to talk about). Finally, any public pharmacy is ultimately going to be in competition with the hospital. Hospitals really don't want someone competing with them on their own turf, and they're not allowed to have a stake in the business (see tax exemption issues).

So, in order to have a public pharmacy on their grounds, hospitals have to go through a lot of legal loopholes and often lose out from a financial standpoint.

I work in a hospital in Detroit, and we have 2 pharmacies on campus. One that has normal 8-6 hours, and one near the ER with 24 hour service. They discount tremendously for employees (including our copays on prescriptions) in order to get us to use their services.

Is it the DMC? Meaning Vanguard? Because if so, they're now a for profit entity, so a lot of the concerns an average hospital has about tax issues they now avoid.