POINT PLEASANT, W.Va. — Fruth Pharmacy recently hosted a gathering of 18 regional drug chains and 28 of their vendor partners for the annual convention of the Southern Drug Stores Association.

Fruth Pharmacy’s Mark Madore and Lynne Fruth with Zitomer/Thriftway’s Lon Rubackin and Sharon Sternheim.

Held last month at The Greenbriar resort in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va., the five-day event gave retailers and suppliers an opportunity to share best practices, network, exchange ideas and examine top issues facing regional pharmacy operators, said Lynne Fruth, president and chairman of Fruth Pharmacy, which has 27 drug stores in West Virginia and Ohio.

“This year, we really focused on putting together a high-quality business program,” Fruth said in a phone interview. “Prior to attending, the chains submitted topics for discussion, and from that we chose the five most pressing topics. To no surprise, the No. 1 topic was reimbursement and preferred networks. The No. 2 topic was marketing, and No. 3 was clinical services. The fourth most pressing thing on the minds of regional chains was the Affordable Care Act and its impact on employee benefits. And No. 5 was retail sales.”

Several drug chains also delivered presentations on key business matters for regional operators, including Kinney Drugs (pharmacy and front-end marketing), Lewis Drug (clinical partnerships), Bartell Drugs (pharmacist management, evaluation and internships) and Red Cross Pharmacy (clinical programs at retail).

The business program, too, featured roundtable discussions, vendor presentations and a “meet the market” event in which representatives of 18 vendors and 18 drug chains met with each other.

“We had a very successful meeting, and the feedback was excellent,” Fruth said. “Supplier partners get almost unrestricted access to the decision makers because we have breakfast, lunch and dinner together every day that we’re there. And the most important part — since none of the chains are competitors — is that we openly chair things that are working or not working, as well as things we want to try. We always leave with a list of initiatives that we want to consider following up on in our own geographic areas, playing off the strengths of what somebody else is doing successfully.”

Other pharmacy operators at the conference included Drug Emporium, Hartig Drug, Hi-School Pharmacy, Hometown Pharmacy, Lifechek Drug, Medicine Center, Ritzman Pharmacy, Sav-On Drug Stores, Sav-Mor, Walker Drug, Williams Brothers Health Care Pharmacy, Zitomer/Thriftway and Greenbriar Medical Arts Pharmacy.

Along with the Chain Drug Marketing Association, other participants included McKesson, Cardinal Health, AmerisourceBergen, H.D. Smith, Anda, Upsher-Smith, AbbVie, Kirby Lester, PDX and Innovation.

For regional drug chains, it’s a time of both opportunities and challenges, according to Fruth.

With their strong reputation for personalized service, regional chains are well positioned for today’s changing pharmacy market, in which pharmacists are assuming a broader health care role and drug stores are providing more services, such as medication therapy management and immunizations, she explained. Yet the number of regional drug chains has dwindled amid industry consolidation, and small operators are being pressed hard financially by the restrictive policies of preferred pharmacy networks in Medicare Part D, shrinking pharmacy reimbursement rates, generic drug price hikes, changes in the pharmaceutical supply chain, and intense competition from larger drug chains and other retail formats.

“The last two years we have focused a fairly significant amount of time on galvanizing the regional chains on the issues,” Fruth said of the association’s conferences. “The regional chains play a very important part in the coverage of the country. If you were to go to certain places in West Virginia or upstate New York, for example, there are a lot of people who would say, ‘We wouldn’t want to be without a Fruth Pharmacy or a Kinney Drugs.’ So the regional chains still have a relevant place in the market. We tend to provide a higher level of care and get better satisfaction marks from customers than a lot of mass retailers.”

The 2015 Southern Drug Stores Association convention is slated to be hosted by Red Cross Pharmacy, she added.