FINDING PHARMACISTS

DAN ALAIMO

"Show me the customers."

As the pharmacist shortage continues with no end in sight, the ability to recruit and retain top talent in this area will increasingly depend on quality of life and work environment issues, supermarket pharmacy executives told SN during a recent Food Marketing Institute conference.

In the past, hiring new pharmacists in a tight market has been similar to sports free agentry with some retailers even offering signing bonuses and extra vacation time.

Salary and benefits still must be competitive, but retailers are realizing that the tie-breaker for many job candidates often comes down to being given the opportunity to use their professional training in customer interaction, and not just for counting pills. In part, this means an ample support staff, including part-time pharmacists, technology that frees up the pharmacist's time, and management that is aware of this advantage to the pharmacy program, as well as to the whole store.

"This past year has been pretty difficult," said Curtis Hartin, senior director of pharmacy, Bi-Lo, Mauldin, S.C. Until recently, Hartin directed the pharmacy program at Schnuck Markets, St. Louis.

"The economy has been good and there has been a lot of expansion by the chain drug stores, as well as independent drug stores, so there has been a lot of demand for pharmacists. Hopefully, with new pharmacy schools coming online, and with larger graduating classes predicted over the next few years, that shortage should abate pretty quickly," he said.

Others were less optimistic.

"It's going to continue to be a prevalent issue in the pharmacy profession for the foreseeable future," said a pharmacy executive with a Midwestern

retailer. "New schools of pharmacy are coming and I think that will help, but it is still a six-to-seven-year process before they actually start graduating enough students to make a difference."

In the meantime, the population continues to age, the number of pharmacies is expanding, more pharmacists - mostly women - are working part time, and other pharmacists are getting older. "It's going to be awhile before we see a relief from that shortage," said John Fegan, senior vice president, pharmacy, Ahold USA, Braintree, Mass.

"I don't think we've seen the impact that Medicare will eventually have on the pharmacist shortage in terms of a great increase in prescription volume," added John Beckner, director, pharmacy and health services, Ukrop's Super Markets, Richmond, Va.

A study by the Pharmacy Manpower Project published in the May/June issue of the Journal of the American Pharmacists Association underscored these trends. While the number of women pharmacists went up from 31% in 1990 to 46% in 2004, a large percentage of male pharmacists are nearing retirement age, and more pharmacists - both male and female - are working part time.

While the study found an increasing workload, it also found a high level of job satisfaction. In 2004, 77% of pharmacists reported they were highly satisfied with their jobs, compared to 66% in 2000.

In general, the study reported that the shortage is worsening at a time when pharmacists want to spend more time with patients and not simply dispense drugs.

"They are looking for more disease-state management. They are looking for more customer interaction," said the Midwestern pharmacy executive.

"We are convinced that involving pharmacists in patient care activities, allowing them to do what they went to school for, is a big factor in their attraction and retention. If you can give them a professional environment to practice in, those folks are more likely to stay with you over the long haul," Beckner said.

What's the bigger factor, money or work environment? "You have to be competitive, but you have to be competitive in both arenas. I don't think it is solely a money issue and I don't think it is solely a workissue. You have to be in the ballgame with all aspects to be appealing," the Midwestern executive said.

"[On retention,] what seems to be critically important is work environment - making the pharmacy as pharmacist-friendly as possible, and as efficient as possible," said Jim Linden, director of pharmacy, Nash Finch Co., Edina, Minn. Linden said he personally gets involved in recruitment and is working with his human resources department to develop scholarship and internship programs.

"Work environment sometimes means more than salary to many of these people, especially the experienced pharmacists who have been in the job for a while," said Michele Snider, director of pharmacy, Save Mart Supermarkets, Modesto, Calif. "The pharmacist shortage is going to continue, and it is going to come down to who can offer the pharmacist the best working environment."

Ahold is striving to provide pharmacists with a good work environment, Fegan said. The company is looking at scheduling, staffing, pharmacy design, technological tools for efficiency, and central-fill operations to reduce store-level volume. "We are looking at anything that will help improve the quality of life and allow the pharmacist to better serve the patent, and that in turn makes us a more attractive employer," he said.

"If you can keep your pharmacists happy, you are going to keep your pharmacists," said a nonfood executive with a Southeastern retailer. "We are trying to be more competitive, take a look at our value proposition, our quality of life statement, and then we are trying to be very competitive with our wages."

The retailer is donating to colleges while doing recruitment. "If we don't do something proactive, then we won't be able to compete with the drug chains one-on-one," the executive said.

Harmons, West Valley City, Utah, has a scholarship program that pays the tuition for pharmacy students, said Greg Jones, director of pharmacy. The deal is one year of work for Harmons in exchange for one year of tuition.

Pointing out the company's small-chain, family atmosphere, Jones said, "once we get people to come and work for us, they stick around and enjoy working for Harmons.

A new college of pharmacy is opening in Salt Lake City, "so within the next three years, that is going to help our situation quite a bit. But the population is aging and the number of prescriptions we are going to fill keeps increasing, and I think that is staying ahead of the number of pharmacists right now. So the problem will probably be about like it is now for the foreseeable future," Jones said.

A robust staff of 16 pharmacists, including many part-timers, is helping three-store ShopRite of Hunterdon County, Flemington, N.J., cope with the pharmacist shortage, said Rose Dickison, pharmacy supervisor. "We have sold our company as one where the pharmacist will not just fill prescriptions like a robot behind the counter. We are trying to shift gears and get our pharmacists out from behind the counter and interact with the customer - help them diagnose themselves, and pick out products that are suitable for their symptoms."

Technological Efficiency

Using technological systems and tools to improve workplace efficiency and free up pharmacists' time is a way some retailers are turning themselves into more attractive employers.

"We are trying to be as competitive as everybody else in salary, and maybe even more so. The next thing is, we are trying to provide them with a good work environment," said Verne Mounts, director of pharmacy, Buehlers Food Markets, Wooster, Ohio.

Toward that end, Buehlers is making a major investment in the technology supporting the pharmacy. For example, a pharmacy management system is expected to be installed in three stores by this month and in all nine pharmacies by fall, Mounts said.

"A significant number of pharmacists are looking for opportunities to use their education. That's the pharmacist I want, not the ones who can count by fives as quickly as possible," Mounts said.

He doesn't see the pharmacist shortage going away soon, but in terms of recruitment, "if I could get the pharmacist out of the distribution function and get them to use their education, it will be a lot easier."

Christopher Thomsen, president, the ThomsenGroup, Kansas City, Mo., is assisting Buehlers in its pharmacy technology upgrade. While visiting pharmacy colleges, he has noted that students are exposed to the latest technologies very early. He has often heard them say, "I'm not going to pharmacy school to count tablets by five. If I wanted to go onto a production line, I would have found a different line of work."

Almost all of these pharmacy students have said that a "modern, forward-thinking, technologically advanced pharmacy" attracts them, he said. A good salary and a stable environment are important, but they want to work where they can really practice pharmacy, he said.

"Having those tools gives them the confidence that they are not going to be stuck behind a counter just counting out pills and putting them into a vial," Thomsen said.

Statistics from pharmacy schools and the government indicate that, with the changing demographics, the pharmacist shortage is going to continue, he said. "If we realize that the solution is not producing more bodies, but using people and technology more efficiently, that's where we are going to be able to get ahead," Thomsen said.