Signs providing COVID-19 vaccinations are seen exterior of a CVS pharmacy in Washington, DC.
Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images
Many pharmacy employees at among the largest U.S. drugstore chains say they’re reaching a breaking point.
On prime of verifying, filling and dishing out prescriptions, pharmacists and support staff are chargeable for administering vaccines, fixing insurance issues, transferring prescriptions to different pharmacies and tending to dozens of sufferers in shops and over the cellphone, amongst different duties. Those staff have mentioned they’re involved that firms like Walgreens and CVS are putting unreasonable calls for on them, with out offering sufficient staffing or sources to securely execute duties.
Frustrated by what they describe as rising workloads, understaffing and cuts to their hours, pharmacy staff from Walgreens areas across the nation and CVS shops within the Kansas City area have walked off the job in current weeks — and a few workers are planning to walk out again from Oct. 30 to Nov. 1.
CNBC spoke to workers from each Walgreens and CVS, together with a pharmacist, two pharmacy technicians and a retailer supervisor, about what their typical workday appears to be like like. The workers, all of whom requested anonymity for concern of retaliation, described ending their shifts exhausted after spending hours juggling dozens of duties across the pharmacy with out sufficient further fingers to help them.
The two firms have been the biggest pharmacies in the U.S. primarily based on prescription drug market share in 2022. Both CVS and Walgreens function round 9,000 retail retailer areas throughout the U.S.
CVS has greater than 30,000 pharmacists and 70,000 pharmacy technicians, whereas rival Walgreens has greater than 86,000 health-care service providers, together with pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and different health-related professionals. CVS pharmacists make $61.44 an hour on common, whereas Walgreens pharmacists make $53.85 per hour on common, in response to employment web site Indeed.
A spokesperson for Walgreens mentioned the corporate acknowledges the “unimaginable work our pharmacists and technicians do day-after-day” and has taken a number of steps in its pharmacies “to make sure that our groups can think about offering optimum affected person care.”
The firm’s ongoing efforts are centered on the way it can recruit, retain and reward pharmacy staff, the spokesperson mentioned. They added that Walgreens has improved expertise and centralized many operations to assist preserve acceptable workloads in pharmacies.
A spokesperson for CVS mentioned the corporate is going through “unprecedented demand and a scientific workforce scarcity within the well being care business and [is] making focused investments in our retail pharmacy enterprise in direct response to suggestions from our pharmacy groups.”
Those investments embrace enabling groups to schedule further help as wanted, enhancing pharmacist and technician recruitment and hiring and strengthening pharmacy technician coaching, in response to the spokesperson. They mentioned these adjustments will start in November and roll out all through subsequent 12 months.
Here’s what a typical day appears to be like like for some staff from the 2 chains, in response to the accounts associated to CNBC.
Walgreens pharmacist
A Walgreens pharmacist mentioned their shifts vary anyplace from six to 12 hours on three to 5 days of the week. The pharmacist mentioned they usually arrive for work at 8 a.m., an hour earlier than the shift.
The pharmacist usually begins the shift by finishing a number of paperwork duties, which take about 5 to 10 minutes.
Then, the pharmacist checks which medicines are out of inventory. The pharmacist mentioned that process is primarily the accountability of pharmacy technicians, but it surely usually falls to them as a result of their colleagues are stretched skinny with different duties.
The pharmacist additionally takes about 20 to half-hour to examine which medicines weren’t delivered to the pharmacy by drug distributors, and calls sufferers to tell them about after they can anticipate their prescriptions to be prepared.
The pharmacist then spends 10 to fifteen minutes canceling vaccination appointments for photographs the pharmacy would not have in inventory, which includes calling sufferers and redirecting them to different retailer areas with vaccines out there. The pharmacist mentioned Walgreens is permitting folks to schedule appointments for any vaccine on-line, even when a retailer location would not have it in inventory.
The Walgreens spokesperson acknowledged that some pharmacy areas needed to reschedule appointments when vaccines first turned out there this fall as a consequence of delays in provide, and added that the chain has apologized for any inconvenience brought about to customers. However, the spokesperson mentioned that each one areas had the mandatory provide “inside a few days.”
By 9:15 a.m., vaccine appointments start and proceed till 6:45 p.m., in response to the pharmacist. Their retailer often takes one appointment each quarter-hour, and a few sufferers get as much as 4 vaccines at a time.
The pharmacist and a pharmacy technician then juggle administering photographs with a number of different duties. Giving jabs has grow to be much more difficult in current months as a result of arrival of latest vaccines in opposition to Covid and respiratory syncytial virus.
Among the opposite duties is addressing the prickly issues associated to insurance coverage protection for prescriptions, the pharmacist mentioned. Their retailer receives 100 to 160 insurance coverage points in their system every day, so the pharmacist dedicates as much as three 30-minute to one-hour chunks of their shift to addressing them.
Both pharmacists and technicians additionally must are likely to prospects in-store and over the cellphone. The pharmacist mentioned they get eight to 10 cellphone calls per hour on common, which may take as much as 10 to fifteen minutes every.
An indication advertises COVID-19 (coronavirus) vaccine photographs at a Walgreens Pharmacy in Somerville, Massachusetts, August 14, 2023.
Brian Snyder | Reuters
All of these duties — together with different minor obligations — are further to the pharmacist’s principal job of verifying and dishing out prescriptions.
The technician usually handles the primary a part of that process, which includes processing new prescription orders from docs.
The pharmacist mentioned they must examine that each one prescription info entered into the system matches what the physician ordered for a affected person. Their retailer usually receives 300 prescriptions a day, so the pharmacist mentioned they evaluation round 25 an hour. A technician or the pharmacist then fills these prescriptions, and the pharmacist does a remaining evaluation to verify the medicines within the bottles are appropriate.
The pharmacist mentioned they’re usually interrupted when performing duties, given the urgency of different points. The disruptions can create a backlog of labor.
The pharmacist famous that the pharmacy closes for their scheduled lunch break from 1:30 p.m. to 2 p.m., which they usually work by means of. By lunch, they usually have to handle new insurance coverage points or make amends for different work they could not get to whereas working immediately with sufferers.
Pharmacy technicians from CVS, Walgreens
Pharmacy technicians are medical professionals who work alongside pharmacists to assist and help sufferers.
One CVS pharmacy technician mentioned they usually come to their retailer location at 7:50 a.m., 10 minutes earlier than their eight-hour shift begins. The technician mentioned they usually work with one to 2 different technicians and one pharmacist throughout their shift, which they imagine shouldn’t be sufficient to deal with the workload.
The technician mentioned they begin off their day by processing new prescription orders from docs — a process that they repeatedly do all through the day. The technician mentioned they must match every prescription to the affected person profile within the CVS system and enter all the proper info earlier than sending it to a pharmacist for evaluation.
The technician additionally takes care of one other a part of the method, which includes filling the prescriptions and printing labels earlier than the pharmacist critiques it for a remaining time. They mentioned their retailer location’s prescription quantity is 600 to 1,000 per day.
The technician mentioned that as quickly as their retailer location opens, they and their co-workers must deal with dozens of affected person cellphone calls, and prospects ready to get their prescriptions or different necessities by means of the drive-thru.
In addition to filling prescriptions and tending to sufferers, the technician mentioned they alternate performing a number of different duties all through the day. The duties embrace administering vaccines and returning medicines that weren’t picked up by sufferers to pharmacy cabinets.
A CVS pharmacy stands in a Brooklyn neighborhood on February 08, 2023 in New York City.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images
A technician from Walgreens has related duties, however their shift is often from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. That technician mentioned they really feel nervousness at any time when they begin their shift as a result of there may be usually an inflow of sufferers coming to the shop who’re simply getting off of labor: “You’re just about strolling proper into chaos.”
Patients usually find yourself ready for assist as a consequence of what the Walgreens technician known as understaffing at their location. They added that annoyed sufferers typically yell or snap at pharmacy staff, which might be “extraordinarily overwhelming.”
The Walgreens technician mentioned they usually keep longer after their shift to assist full necessary closing duties, reminiscent of taking out the rubbish and disposing of delicate affected person info. After arriving house, they mentioned they “utterly crash” as a consequence of exhaustion.
Some workers who do not technically have obligations within the pharmacy might find yourself serving to stressed-out pharmacists and technicians.
A CVS retailer supervisor mentioned that on three to 4 days of the week they work at the entrance of the shop from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. after which assist out at their location’s pharmacy till 9 p.m. The supervisor nonetheless has a pharmacy technician license, which permits them to carry out duties like administering vaccines.
The retailer supervisor mentioned they’re a salaried worker, so they’re “basically working within the pharmacy totally free” to offer their staff further help.
“In some form or type, myself or my staff are being pushed into a side of the enterprise that we did not join,” the shop supervisor mentioned. “We’re being pushed again there as a result of we do not have the sources.”