What's Happening At Walgreens And CVS?

I have been getting a lot of questions from family and friends lately and I would like to address the pharmacy walkouts at some of the national retail chains. 

First, a little background: I worked retail pharmacy straight out of school for a couple of reasons: The first reason being I was only going to be in the city for a year and retail was a good job to work and transfer within. Secondly, at the time (allegedly) retail paid more than hospital. Lastly, I knew retail was not a long-term plan for my particular career goals, but I needed something and jobs were readily available at the time. They needed people and I was given a lot of flexibility in my schedule.  I also interned at one of the retail giants during pharmacy school, so the work was familiar. 

One of those years in retail was downtown in a big city which had me floating at extremely busy stores and a lot of stores where the customers and I did not speak the same language. That was not a problem in itself - all of those customers and patients were incredibly nice. It was just harder for me to navigate through the nuances of being a new pharmacist. 

That was also the year that pharmacists started giving immunizations. At the time, there was only one or two pharmacists within a pharmacy or district that was credentialed to give immunizations. We had clinics on certain days during flu season. Gradually, we expanded to walk-ins, different types of immunizations and a mandate that every pharmacist get certified.

That (I hate needles) and the burn out I experienced from those years in retail pushed me straight to a hospital pharmacist job where the salary was great (not lower like I had been told), the hours were much better, and the work was at a much better pace. And instead of working every other weekend, I worked every fourth. 

Pharmacy has gotten a bad rap over the years. The long waits, the insurance denials, the miscommunication. A lot of that is because the employees did not and do not have the resources to do their jobs. 

When you talk to a tired, stressed out, snappy pharmacist, is it usually because they are at the end of their rope, they’ve been yelled at all day by their customers and managers and they are barely hanging on. It’s not because they don’t like you or don’t want to do their job. It’s because they have been at their last straw for months. 

Why is this? First of all, they have a lot of responsibility without a lot of support. If a pharmacist fills a prescription incorrectly and it causes patient harm, then they are liable. If their technician misfills or mislabels a prescription and they don’t catch it, then they are personally liable.  If they don’t fill a certain number of prescriptions a day, then their boss yells at them. If they call to get a prescription corrected or changed for you, sometimes the doctor yells at them too. There are also a  lot of rules and regulations to keep track of - this is why a pharmacist has to pass a law exam in every single state based on rules from the  FDA, DEA, Board of Pharmacy, etc… All of these laws are good and are there to protect the patient/consumer, but it’s also a lot of administrative tasks and inspections. They have to make sure medications are getting stored appropriately, controlled substances prescriptions are being written correctly (every state has very different laws about this), and prescriptions are not written fraudulently. They have to double check all of the order entry (did you write for methocarbamol or methotrexate - a big difference!), double check the quantities on the prescriptions after it’s filled, and double check the refills. Again, this is all a good, and important part of pharmacy - and one of the MAIN REASONS for the pharmacy walkout (patient safety), but it’s also a big part of the workload. I’m just trying to give you a picture of all the responsibilities. 

So, when an employer does not give a pharmacist the proper resources to manage all of these tasks, they can get a little stressed. When their attention is pulled a hundred different directions - cashing out patients, counseling, entering prescriptions, taking doctor’s calls, answering the phones, managing people, etc… it is a lot - especially at the busier stores. 

Oh, and they are graded on all of this too - how fast they answer the phone, how many prescriptions they fill in a day, how many flu shots and COVID shots they give, etc…The administrators give the stores high performance targets for vaccines but then don’t staff them appropriately to meet the targets

If the pharmacists don’t meet all of these metrics, then they may get written up. A lot of this happened in 2019. Big retail chains were trying to get rid of some of the long-term employees (they were paid more!) and hire new grads at almost $30/hour less (in some of the scenarios). All of a sudden, after twenty years of high performance reviews, these pharmacists were not meeting expectations and eventually fired. 

Imagine the stress. 

This is why some pharmacy-centered Facebook groups have done really well. Solidarity. All of a sudden pharmacists were able to share their stores, see that they were not alone and also start to band together and advocate for the profession. It was only until recently that pharmacists were given lunch breaks. Before that, they were on their feet for eight hours straight with barely a chance to go to the bathroom (I would never drink water during my shifts for this reason!). 

So, for the pharmacy profession to get to this point, it is because of one thing. Hopelessness. They have begged, cried, screamed (and a lot of them quit). Many have gone on anti-anxiety medications and antidepressants. No one is listening. 

Even now, I read statements from these big retail corporations and they don’t appear to be listening. They blame higher volume in COVID shots for the burnout, but this burnout started ten years prior. Pharmacists have been breaking for years. 

Pharmacists miss their kid’s soccer games, recitals, class parties, field trips, etc… all because their time off is denied. I hear pharmacists lamenting all the time that they asked for a day off months in advance, and it gets denied. A pharmacist died (DIED) in Ohio because she was experiencing chest pain, wanted to go to the ED, but the corporation told her she wasn’t allowed to leave until they found coverage. 

It all comes down to feeling valued as an employee. Feeling appreciated.

Connecting your mission to your employee and then giving them the resources to fulfill that mission. 

This is business 101. Happy employee = happy customer = more profits. 

So, why are the strikes happening? Pharmacists are breaking and they are worried that their patients may suffer. If they fill a prescription incorrectly because their attention was going in multiple directions, then someone may be harmed. If they fill a prescription incorrectly because they were hurrying to catch up on prescriptions, then someone may experience a bad side effect. It all comes down to doing what is best for the customer, why won’t retail chains listen?