- Six current and former pharmacists told Insider about their experiences during the pandemic.
- Pharmacists described feeling stretched thin distributing medications and COVID-19 vaccines.
- Walgreens, CVS, and Rite Aid say they are recruiting more workers to meet increased demand.
In August 2021, Bled Tanoe was working as pharmacy manager in an Oklahoma Walgreens when she saw morale was flagging among her staff. She told them she would bring in pizza to perk the team up, when she realized a free pizza was nowhere near what she would need to fix the situation for her overworked staff.
"The state of pharmacies right now is beyond gift cards, jeans, or free pizza," she told Insider, referencing some of the things companies have offered to pharmacists this year. That day, she went home and posted her reflections under the hashtag "pizzaisnotworking." When she woke up the next morning, she was shocked to see it had been reposted over 500 times by other pharmacists sharing their own experiences.
"I was grateful for the support, but very sad that so many people in the industry felt this way," she told Insider.
Insider spoke to 6 current and former pharmacists at CVS, Walgreens, and Rite Aid. Clinicians said they experienced burnout from high workloads and did not receive adequate support from the pharmacies to handle increased workload from COVID-19 vaccines.
Walgreens locations in Idaho recently shortened pharmacy hours due to lack of staff. Pharmacy patients said they experienced longer wait times at CVS, Walgreens, and Walmart locations in Indiana, Colorado, Kentucky, and Connecticut, according to local news reports.
The problem worsened as more people became eligible for COVID-19 vaccine and booster shots, The Wall Street Journal reported. The Food and Drug Administration authorized a Pfizer jab for kids aged 5 to 11 last month, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently recommended all adults get a booster shot once eligible.
"We are endlessly proud of Rite Aid pharmacists and pharmacy techs, as well as their peers at retail pharmacies across the country, for their integral role in the battle against COVID-19," Rite Aid Chief Pharmacy Officer Jocelyn Konrad told Insider in a statement, noting that the company is "aggressively recruiting" new hires.
A Walgreens representative recently told Insider the company was recruiting pharmacists in the fall to support demand for COVID-19 vaccinations, testing, and flu shots. The company raised its minimum wage for hourly workers to $15 this August, and offered technicians who become certified to administer flu and COVID-19 vaccines a $1,000 reward.
CVS told Insider the firm is in the process of onboarding 20,000 new retail employees, including pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. The retail chain has also "begun the process of" adding pre-scheduled, daily break times.
Tanoe told Insider that the intense working conditions left her feeling like she might cause harm without having adequate time to do everything a pharmacist is supposed to do, like review all of a patient's medications and check allergies before distributing a prescription.
Several other workers, who asked to remain anonymous, echoed Tanoe's sentiments.
"We are expected to fill hundreds of medications per day, with less and less support staff, and more workload," a former CVS pharmacist in Connecticut told Insider. "COVID has exacerbated this already inhumane situation."
Another former CVS pharmacist in New York said she left in the fall due in part to fatigue and stress from the job. (Insider verified employment records of the pharmacists who asked to remain anonymous to protect their identities.)
At the start of the pandemic, the pharmacist said she had been the busiest in her entire career. But customers expressed gratitude for pharmacists working during the early months that made her job enjoyable.
The pharmacist said she worked extra hours and still fell behind on filling prescriptions — and that was before the FDA authorized vaccines. After people began coming in for vaccinations, pharmacists struggled being the only clinicians who needed to check every prescription and administer vaccines.
CVS told Insider thousands of stores operate vaccine clinics with a separate team of pharmacists who do not fill prescriptions or counsel patients.
Still, the pharmacist recalled some patients who grew agitated as stores got busier, including some people who ripped syringes out of her hands to "check it" due to misinformation-induced fear of microchips or other non-vaccine ingredients.
"You could either focus on filling people's prescriptions or you can focus on doing vaccines, but there was literally no way that you could do both," the pharmacist told Insider.