Will your pharmacy have enough staffing to handle the anticipated deluge of COVID-19 vaccinations along with their usual high volume of prescriptions?
For decades, pharmacists have stated passionately that understaffing at chain drugstores places the public safety at risk from pharmacy mistakes. Will the added burden of COVID-19 vaccinations cause in increase in dispensing errors?
A recent survey by Drug Topics found that pharmacists’ stress and job dissatisfaction have soared. Why should you care?
From the Drug Topics article (Jennifer Barrett, “2020 Pharmacy Salary Survey Results: Salaries Stabilize as Stress and Job Dissatisfaction Soar,” December 7, 2020)
Stress and Workload
“Management pressure, high work volume, endless amounts of paperwork––all of these are part of a pharmacist’s job, which unfortunately often leads to job-related stress. Compounded with the ongoing pandemic and high patient demand, it is no surprise that pharmacists are generally feeling more overwhelmed this year.
“Our survey results showed that pharmacists reported higher stress levels and increased workloads in 2020 compared with previous years. Seventy-three percent indicated increased stress levels in 2020 compared with 61% in 2019. Pharmacists cited higher work volume (79%), COVID-19 (67%), and more pressure from management (65%) as the highest stressors.
“Another 73% said their workload has increased, up slightly from 70% in 2019, and just 20% reported that their workload has remained the same.
“Although COVID-19 has likely exacerbated this trend, high stress and heavier workloads have been steadily affecting the profession for years. Pharmacists are increasingly taking on larger roles in the care of their patients…. When asked why their stress levels have increased at work, many pharmacists submitted responses ranging from insufficient staffing support, issues with pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), and lack of training to the explosive growth of vaccinations.”
The Chain Drugstore Business Model:
Chain drugstores are in business to make a profit. Therefore, chain drugstores try very hard to cut labor costs. For decades, pharmacists have said that understaffing at chain drugstores places the public safety at risk.
Staffing levels at chain drugstores are determined by corporate-level executives, not by individual stores or by pharmacists. Chain drugstores have found that understaffing is their path to profitability, their business model for success.
Even though understaffing increases profits by forcing everyone to work at maximum output for their entire shift, it also results in an unacceptable number of pharmacy mistakes.
Questions to Consider:
When COVID-19 vaccinations begin at your local chain drugstore, ask your pharmacist whether he or she is given enough extra staffing to handle the added burden of administering those vaccinations and safely filling prescriptions.
With the added burden of COVID-19 vaccinations, will your pharmacist have less time to verify the accuracy of prescriptions filled by himself/herself or technicians?
Most chain drugstores have only one pharmacist on duty at a time. It is much cheaper to add more technicians rather than have two pharmacists on duty at the same time.
Pharmacists: Do you think you will have enough staffing to safely fill prescriptions and administer COVID-19 vaccinations? As you begin to provide COVID-19 vaccinations, we’d love to hear from you about your experiences. If enough pharmacists speak out, perhaps the big chains will get the message and provide safe staffing levels.
Pharmacy customers: If you sense that your pharmacy staff is overstressed during the next several months when they’re involved with administering COVID-19 vaccines, perhaps you can check your prescriptions more carefully to make sure that everything looks right.
One method is to use one of the many pill identifier sites on the Internet. All you have to do is enter all the numbers and letters on your pills and the site will then tell you the brand or generic name of each pill.
There are also several useful drug interaction web sites where you can enter all the drugs you’re taking and the sites will tell you whether there are any interactions and also the potential significance or seriousness of those interactions.
Many people are in the habit of carefully checking their prescriptions immediately upon receiving their medications or as soon as they arrive at home. That may be an especially good thing to do as pharmacies become deluged with patients getting COVID-19 vaccines.
If your pharmacy staff looks overstressed and overworked, be especially vigilant about your prescriptions for the next several months.
Is Your Pharmacist Qualified to Administer COVID-19 Vaccinations?
According to the American Pharmacists Association website, the Department of Health and Human Services requires that pharmacists and pharmacy interns complete a practical training program of at least 20 hours “including hands-on injection technique, clinical evaluation of indications and contraindications of vaccines, and the recognition and treatment of emergency reactions to vaccines.”
You may want to ask the person at your pharmacy who administers the vaccine whether he/she obtained this or similar certification.
Of course, you will also want to record and save the lot number and manufacturer of the vaccine that you receive in case a problem emerges at some later point with some vaccines or batches.
Dennis Miller, RPh, (retired) is the author of The Shocking Truth About Pharmacy: A Pharmacist Reveals All The Disturbing Secrets, available on Amazon.
