Economic pressures continue to challenge profitability in pharmacies today, even as the demand for prescriptions and pharmacy services continues to increase. According to Wolters Kluwer, “while age, gender, and location are driving decentralization to different degrees, pharmacies are emerging as first-line options for nonemergent care across most demographics.”
Dr. Peter Bonis believes that meeting consumers’ expectations requires providers to start getting ready now. “By preparing for this shift today, providers can work in concert across care sites to deliver the best care to patients,” he says. “Likewise, newer care delivery models, like retail pharmacies, can ensure they’re ready to meet the expectations of healthcare consumers, who will increasingly be turning to them for a growing range of care needs.”
Even as the public’s trust in pharmacists grows, and the need to deliver care in the pharmacy setting increases, challenges remain, impacting the ability of pharmacies to deliver services and remain profitable. The demand for prescriptions is outpacing current pharmacy capacity while the cost of prescriptions continues to increase, and data continues to show patients want quick access to healthcare resources.
Labor shortages continue to plague the pharmacy industry, with the biggest challenge today being pharmacy technicians, for whom there is a shortage and a current turnover rate of 21 percent. In addition to the pharmacy tech shortage, enrollment in pharmacy programs continues to decline, with a significant shortage expected in 5-7 years’ time. More than three-quarters of community pharmacists say they are having a tough time filling open positions, and the result is higher payroll costs and longer wait times for patients seeking to fill prescriptions, according to a new survey released by the National Community Pharmacists Association. Strategies to stem the labor shortage include increasing the use of overtime and using pharmacists to perform tasks usually handled by technicians, solutions which don’t seem sustainable long-term.
Staffing shortages affect patients as well, just when they are more often relying on retail pharmacies for more of their healthcare needs:
- Long telephone wait times
- Extended wait times in the pharmacy to pick up medications
- Prescriptions not ready when promised
- Lengthy waits to consult with a pharmacist
As the younger generation adopts alternative prescription delivery methods including drive through and mail order, it is more important for pharmacies to provide value, giving patients a reason to come into the commercial pharmacy, driving profitability.
Pharmacies must begin preparing now to deal with the shrinking labor pool and rising prescription demand. As the demand continues to grow, throughput must increase even when staff cannot be added. This demand is further driven by the increased demand for pharmacy services since the pandemic, and laws changing the scope of practice for pharmacists to aid in the healthcare sector. All this has reshaped the public’s expectations of pharmacists and local care delivery.
At this tipping point, pharmacy automation solutions stand ready to close the gap, allowing pharmacies to meet today’s market challenge and patient demands, increasing throughput without adding staff, driving profitability and patient loyalty.
Pharmacy automation solutions:
- Maximize throughput as demand increases
- Automate high manual, potentially error prone processes
- Meet patient delivery times more consistently
- Allow for tighter inventory management, reducing costs
- Provide techs a method to grow their career through interacting with the solution
- Enable pharmacies the option to scale operations while lowering staffing demands
At iA, we help pharmacies make strategic investments in the pharmacy of the future, supporting retail stores and health systems through automation to enable and empower pharmacists to provide more access to care for patients.
Ready to learn more? Read our whitepaper 3 Signs the Pharmacy Ecosystem is Poised for a Movement: Are You Ready? to learn how iA’s commitment to improving pharmacy operations through fulfillment solutions can enable a renewed focus on patient experience for your staff.