A quick keyword search for “pharmacy” in the Google news app and a similar headline appears over and over. CVS, Walgreens, and Walmart are all changing their hours due to staffing issues. I first saw this headline from USA Today[1] just over a week ago, which specifically says, “pharmacist shortage,” and my initial thought was “what pharmacist shortage?”
When I first started college back in 2001, pharmacy was a different world. They were opening a new CVS or Walgreens on every corner. Walgreens had a monopoly in San Francisco, and CVS was determined to open 2 stores for every Walgreens in town. In California, there were only 4 pharmacy schools to choose from, producing about 250 new pharmacists a year. Today, according to the California Society of Health-System Pharmacists (CSHP), there are 11 programs in the state[2] and in November of 2021, CVS announced it will be closing 900 stores over three years, starting in 2022[3]. It doesn’t take much math at all to see that the number of pharmacists is increasing every year while the job market is slowing down. There are jobs other than those in retail pharmacies, yes, but this is most of the jobs available, especially to the new grads who have very little experience (most hospital jobs require a one or two year residency after pharmacy school, or at least 1 year of experience).
Again, I ask, what pharmacist shortage? After seeing all these headlines falsely claiming that there is a shortage, I consulted the internet collective to see if anyone else was as dumbfounded as I am. In the Reddit subreddit r/pharmacy, I found a thread about these articles with the same response I had. Then I found a link the American Pharmacists Association’s (APhA) response where the CEO of APhA had this to say: “It is incorrect to say that there is a shortage of pharmacists or pharmacy technicians. More accurately, there is a shortage of pharmacists and technicians willing to work under the current conditions.”[4] Exactly this!
Like any business, over the years, retail pharmacies have been looking for ways to cut costs, the easiest way being reducing the budget for payroll by cutting hours. When I first started as a pharmacist in 2009, the store I was working at had 3 technicians working throughout the day. Today, the pharmacy is open less hours, meaning the same workload needs to be completed in less time, and there are usually only 2 technicians scheduled each day. Since I first started there, the volume at that store has gone up considerably, buying out two other pharmacies in the area. Increased workload, less hours the store is open, and less staffing is exactly the conditions that APhA is referring to. CVS, Walgreens, and Walmart are putting undue pressure on the staff. Potential new hires know this and avoid taking jobs with those companies. There is no staffing shortage, it is just that no one wants to willingly put themselves into a stressful working environment.
We have already been given less staff hours this year, compared to last year, adding even more stress to our lives. Reducing the pharmacy hours will compound that even further. We will have to complete the same amount of work in less time and with less help. I hope APhA stands by their statement and does more to improve working conditions. We all want to do everything we can for our patients, but we need our employers to provide what we need so we can get the work done.
[1] https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2023/01/27/cvs-pharmacy-hours-reduced/11132743002/ [2] https://www.cshp.org/page/CAPharmSchools/California-Pharmacy-Schools.htm [3] https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/18/cvs-store-closures-to-shut-about-300-stores-a-year-over-next-three-years.html [4] https://pharmacist.com/APhA-Press-Releases/american-pharmacists-association-on-move-to-cut-pharmacy-hours
