A tale of two countries: Staffing shortages squeezing pharmacy here and south of the border

Even before COVID-19 hit, the pharmacy industry in the United States was viewed as a sector in chaos. Many pharmacists south of the border complained about chronic understaffing that forced them to do too much in too little time, and saw them working long shifts with little or no time for breaks. Many accused of some of the bigger chains of deliberately turning a deaf ear to pleas to hire more staff, putting profit ahead of employees and customers’ safety. Today, pharmacy in the U.S. appears to be at a breaking point—driven to this stage in large part by the still-evolving demands from COVID-19 and also by a shortage of human resources. Recent reports have highlighted reduced pharmacy hours in places such as Kansas City, where residents complain that their local Walgreens and CVS pharmacies are closing their doors earlier than usual. In Oregon, officials in Baker County–which has only three pharmacies–have asked the state for help with pharmacy staffing shortages, which have led to permanent pharmacy closures. In Colorado, some patients say it's taking days, even weeks, to get their prescriptions filled. “Between rollouts of COVID-19 vaccines for children, boosters and seasonal flu shots—on top of their other existing patient care services—pharmacies are stretched very thin, while patients need them more than ever,” Douglas Hoey, a pharmacist and CEO of the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA), said in a recent press release. Staffing shortages are a major concern and patients have been feeling the impact of longer wait times for prescriptions, according to the NCPA. In a survey conducted by the association between Oct. 26 and Nov. 6, close to 70% of pharmacies reported having difficulties filling staff positions, with pharmacy technicians and front-end roles being the toughest to fill. As a result, many pharmacies are offering higher wages and incentive pay, according to the association. Read: Fired 32q1Walmart pharmacist wins US$27.5-million court award against former employer But is Canada experiencing the same level of difficulty? Data analysis provided to Pharmacy Practice+Business by the job site Indeed.com pointed to an increase of almost 25% in the share of job postings for pharmacists between October 2020 and October 2021. Of the total job postings for pharmacists during this period, 20% stayed open for 60 days or longer—a potential indicator that a role is hard to fill by employers, according to Indeed.com. A poll among Pharmacy Practice+Business readers supported this observation, with 80% of respondents saying it’s become more difficult for them to fill pharmacy job vacancies. Almost 40% of poll respondents said pharmacists and pharmacy assistants were hardest to hire for, while 21% said they’ve found it hard to hire pharmacy technicians. Yet just four years ago, the country’s Canadian Occupational Projection System predicted a surplus of pharmacists between 2019 and 2028. Read: Pharmacy burnout during COVID-19 “The pandemic has caused a number of human resource challenges not just unique to pharmacy but across other industries,” said Danielle Paes, chief pharmacist officer at the Canadian Pharmacists Association. “We’re hearing about increased vacancies in many parts of the country, not only for pharmacists but also pharmacy support staff.” A big challenge from a human resource planning perspective is the lack of demand data. While the Canadian Institute for Health Information tracks the number of pharmacists in the country—with the latest figures showing the lowest increase in pharmacists supply, at 8% between 2016 and 2020—there are no national statistics that track demand, said Paes. “So we don’t know if this human resource shortage is a temporary or long-term trend,” she said. “It speaks to the need to look at how do we sustain the industry—how do we advance pharmacy human resource planning to ensure we have enough trained people to meet the healthcare needs of Canadians?” For Jean-Pierre Chicha, owner of Pharmacie Familiprix in Pincourt, Que., the staffing challenges since COVID-19 began have been immense. Three employees have taken maternity leave over the last year—one of whom is returning to work soon—while his team’s workload has continued to increase. “We’ve done 350 flu shots already and we call up all our patients that got the flu vaccine from us in previous years to remind them to come in or to update their files in case they moved away,” said Chicha. “We do regular vaccines as well, COVID testing for people who want to travel and we’re getting ready to start giving out COVID boosters and vaccinating children for COVID. So we are multitasking.” Chicha said he hired a new pharmacist recently—at an hourly rate much higher than what the pharmacist’s previous employer was paying. He also previously hired a former dental assistant and trained her to be a pharmacy technician. “And we also have a student cashier who’s very smart, so we promoted her to be pharmacist technician,” he said. “I believe in investing in my staff and trying to create a positive atmosphere here, because we have enough pressure with our workload.” Read: Tales from the pharmacy frontlines

A tale of two countries: Staffing shortages squeezing pharmacy here and south of the border

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