After pharmacists at multiple CVS and Walgreens pharmacies across the country staged walkouts over unsuitable work conditions in October, now being deemed “Pharmageddon,” it’s clear that the way pharmacies have been running isn’t working anymore.
Pharmacists are oftentimes at the front line of healthcare services for millions of Americans, and they’re saying that they’re severely understaffed and overworked. With more and more healthcare workers reporting difficult work conditions and mental health repercussions since the rise of COVID-19, it comes as no surprise that pharmacists are feeling the pressure.
A main concern of the pharmacists that prompted these walkouts was that their working conditions created unsafe and undesirable experiences for their customers who rely on them to provide them with a high level of care. Overworked employees have told media outlets such as USA today that they are more likely to make mistakes.
With these walkouts happening, there’s also a risk of increasing pharmacy deserts, which are defined as areas where populations have restricted and poor access to or are a far distance from a pharmacy. Pharmacy desert populations have more difficulties accessing their medications and these populations may face increased health disparities and risks as a result.
Now, with pharmacists performing walkouts and others closing and facing bankruptcy, patients in areas that aren’t typically considered pharmacy deserts may soon find themselves facing these difficulties.
As the pharmacy companies put profits before their employees, not only are pharmacists suffering, but so are the people who frequent these pharmacies for their medications and annual flu and COVID vaccinations. When it comes to the health, wellness, and safety of guests and patients, this cannot be allowed to continue.
At PersonalRX Pharmacy, we recognize the problems within the industry and we strive to do better, not only for ourselves, but for our employees and our customers who rely on us to provide them with the best possible pharmacy experience. As business owners of a pharmacy, we are positioned to make a difference, asking ourselves what else can we do to help? How can we continue to ensure working conditions are better for our pharmacists and ensure that they are able to continue providing a higher level of care for patients?
Our customers not only come to us for a solution to the long wait times at and regular commutes to and from their local pharmacy, but for the high-touch, personalized care that we provide. There are a few things that we do differently in order to make all of this possible:
- PersonalRX Pharmacy is a proactive and personalized online pharmacy service that delivers a 30-day supply of your medication directly to your door each month. We recognize that a home delivery pharmacy service is more than a convenience for our customers, and that it can increase their quality of life.
- Just like your traditional pharmacy, we have licensed specialists who contact your doctors, verify your medications and doses, and transfer your prescriptions for you. A critical part of this process is the comprehensive MedRec2TM proprietary solution we’ve built to support pharmacist oversight for a patient’s prescriptions and over the counter regimine.
- Like your traditional pharmacy, every one of our patients is assigned a dedicated Personal Care Coordinator who proactively connects with their patients on a regular cadence and who is directly available to answer any questions about medications, shipping, refills, medication changes, insurance coverage and more.
- Indeed, the Personal Care Coordinator is a major differentiating service PersonalRX Pharmacy delivers between us and all other pharmacies. Most patients don’t have a specific person dedicated to helping them, and they have become used to speaking to a different person each time they go. This leads to a lack of personalized care which can lead to all kinds of problems, including medication mistakes.
- One of our main goals is to create a service that helps to improve the entire pharmacy experience. Our dedicated Personal Care Coordinators also help patients with medication adherence, a critical measurement of success for providers, insurance payers and especially among populations with complicated medical conditions. One way that we emphasize this, that also makes us different from other delivery pharmacies, is that we break down medications into daily, time-of-day dose packs, so that patients never have to guess what medication to take and when.
- According to a recent study, there’s evidence to support that areas which received an increase in access to telepharmacy options saw a decrease in pharmacy desert populations. In order for these areas to see these benefits, online pharmacies must put in the work to create and maintain safe and desirable working conditions for our pharmacists.
We emphasize the importance of personal care with our patients, as our service is targeted towards those with complicated medical conditions who take many different maintenance medications. This doesn’t mean that patients who take only one or two maintenance medications or patients who need medication for an acute issue don’t deserve this same level of care.
People with all different types and levels of medical conditions are fed up with the long wait times and the inconsistencies that their local pharmacies have created. The pharmacists are letting us know that they’ve had enough with the way things are, and are rightfully demanding better working conditions.
PersonalRX Pharmacy has invested in technology that saves our pharmacists invaluable time sorting medications by automating the process, and taking stress off their daily work shifts. The machines that our pharmacists use assist them in sorting and processing patient medications into their respective daily, time-of-day dose packs.
Thanks to this technology, pharmacists have more time to provide their patients and their caregivers with the dedicated care and support that they deserve. It’s also worth mentioning the mental and physical relief that this technology provides pharmacy workers who no longer need to hand-check each individual dose pack for hours and hours on end. When our pharmacy technicians are happier with their jobs and working conditions, they are more likely to provide our customers with exceptional care.
We believe that this is something that more pharmacies should be leaning towards. Whether or not they invest in machine technology that helps to automate the process, these businesses can benefit from investing in ways to alleviate some of the pressure that is put on their pharmacy technicians and pharmacists on a day-to-day basis.
Businesses such as CVS and Walgreens are seeing the consequences of putting profits before people, and they need to act accordingly to continue to make changes in the industry that benefit workers and customers alike.
This might look like hiring more pharmacists to alleviate the current employees and create more desirable schedules for all employees. It might also look like paying pharmacists a higher salary and wages to increase incentives. Whatever the solution may be, it must start with putting the people first, and listening to what they have to say.
In the meanwhile, PersonalRX Pharmacy will continue to strive towards providing a better experience for our pharmacists, and a better experience for our patients and their caregivers as a result.
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