ATLANTA — Nearly two-thirds of CVS pharmacies and 4,600 Walmart pharmacies are cutting back hours and closing several stores in response to staffing shortages worsened by the pandemic.
Locally, that could mean a lot of key changes for you. First, as a patient, it could mean longer wait times, said Shirin Zadeh, pharmacist and president of the Atlanta region at the Pharmacy Association of Georgia.
“When I see a mom is waiting for her child's antibiotic for like an hour or two, but there's nothing I can do because I'm the only one there or I just have one technician that's running around doing everything," Zadeh said. "We have a lot of medication on backorder that's affecting our patients.”
Second, she said we’ll start seeing smaller graduating classes of pharmacy students in Georgia.
That’s because students have seen the burnout felt by pharmacists, especially during the pandemic, and some have decided to change career paths.
"The job doesn't look appealing as it used to," she said. "We used to have a lot of pharmacy technicians who started the job to become a pharmacist but now they come to see the work then they just don't want to do this as their career. We are going to have less pharmacists graduating, so we're definitely going to have a shortage of pharmacists very soon."
Third, you may have to rely more on independent pharmacies. Zadeh said they wouldn’t face as much of a shortage – compared to national chains.
“Local pharmacies are owned and run by pharmacists," she said. "So they know the workflow."
Pharmacist technician Katie Mallory said she’s not surprised some chain pharmacies, like the one she works at, are closing stores.
“The wholesale costs of prescription medication is extremely high, and it leaves a very thin profit margin - it leaves a very thin margin for retailers," Mallory said. "It's not enough for retailers to operate on. We have very few labor hours in relation to the number of prescriptions that we have to fill. So it's always a very tense, very tight situation."
In a statement, Walmart tells 11Alive:
"Walmart is committed to helping our associates live better. Walmart has a strong and incredible pharmacy team, and we are making this change to not only enhance their work-life balance but also to maintain the best level of service for our customers.
This change is a direct result of feedback from our pharmacy associates and listening to our customers. By positioning our teams in the hours where our customers say they want to visit our pharmacy, we are better able to deliver excellent customer service and support our associates as they continue to serve their communities every day.
Beginning in March, pharmacy hours in almost 4,600 of our stores will change to Monday-Friday 9a-7p, with weekend pharmacy hours remaining the same."
CVS Pharmacy also sent a statement:
"As part of the regular course of business, we periodically review operating hours to make sure we’re open during peak customer demand. From time to time, this may result in a shift in pharmacy hours. By adjusting hours in select stores this spring, we ensure our pharmacy teams are available to serve patients when they’re most needed. If a pharmacy is closed, a patient can visit any open CVS Pharmacy location for assistance with their immediate prescription needs.
Roughly two-thirds of our retail pharmacies will adjust hours beginning in March. The new hours of operation will vary by pharmacy.
We encourage anyone interested in working for CVS Health to visit our career page at https://jobs.cvshealth.com/ where you can search by job type, location, etc."
Mallory and Zadeh worry the shift in hours could mean more work.
“We may actually lose a lot more pharmacists because now they have to work the same amount of work in less hours and get paid less," Zadeh said.
Publix said that, as of right now, it would not be changing its pharmacy hours. In a statement, it said:
"At Publix Pharmacy, patient care is our priority. Our pharmacy teams work extremely hard to provide our customers with quality health care, convenience, and support for their wellness journeys. We continue to provide our pharmacy teams the support they need to provide their customers with the level of service they have grown to expect from us. As we continue to experience store growth throughout our operating area, there are no current plans to reduce our pharmacy hours of operation."
If you’re flexible with options, Zadeh recommends relying more on independent pharmacies - some of which are open 24/7 - because she said those wouldn’t be affected as much as national chains by the shortage.
“I just think the mindset has to change," Zadeh added. "I think the pharmacist has to get something in return, they have to be compensated for all the expectation extra work that they're adding. They need to get proper help. We have wonderful, wonderful pharmacy technicians, but they just have workload and the compensation does not align, and we have jobs that are open and just nobody wants to take it because of that.”