Indianapolis, Indiana – Retail chains like Walgreens and CVS have been hit by staffing shortages as pharmacists struggle to keep up with the increase of COVID-19, RSV, and flu patients.
It’s because pharmacists don’t want to operate in retail settings, according to pharmacist and owner of Dr. Aziz Medical Clinic Hamid Abbaspour.
“They’re dealing with issues in the environment,” he said.
Since he has been in business for 35 years, Abbaspour claims that there is not enough help from technicians and clerks and that pharmacists now have greater responsibilities. He asserted that the rise in flu cases, COVID-19, and the RSV season are not what are causing pharmacists to experience “burnout.”
“When it comes to those, they’re like bring it on! We’ll take care of it, but at the same time they want to be sure that they don’t have to be on the phone for hours with an insurance company to process a prescription or get a complaint from a patient that their prescription isn’t covered,” explained Abbaspour. “Those things can be outsourced. Let the pharmacist take care of the patient and unfortunately we’re losing that.”
He followed by giving a positive indication of the number of pupils who are interested in the profession. In Indiana, there are three pharmacy schools: Butler, Manchester, and Purdue. Each year, hundreds of students graduate, according to Abbaspour.
Kameron Foellinger just received his degree in pharmacy from Purdue University. He worked as an intern at a large chain pharmacy before accepting a position at the Dr. Aziz Medical Clinic.
“The store I worked at, we did about 1,400 prescriptions a day. It was one of the biggest stores in Indiana,” Foellinger said. “But definitely, there were stressful times where things start to pile up and there’s too many tasks falling on the pharmacists and not enough personnel to handle all the patients coming in.”
Big-chain pharmacists have contacted Abbaspour in search of employment. “I get applications every month,” he said.
