Tech Shortage
Sonya Collins
Sweeping nationwide worker shortages that inspired the term “The Great Resignation” have been an ongoing collateral effect of the COVID-19 pandemic. The phenomenon has touched most industries and professions, including certified pharmacy technicians (CPhTs), in some way.
According to the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP), vacancy rates for CPhT positions averaged 20% to 30% last year. One in 10 health systems surveyed reported shortages of 41% or more.
“Our ambition with the survey was to define the scope of the issue and the role pharmacy technicians play so that we can advocate for them and educate health care executives, the public, and those who may be interested in careers as pharmacy technicians about the benefits of working in this profession,” said David Chen, BSPharm, ASHP assistant vice president for pharmacy leadership and planning.
Technicians perform critical functions
Pharmacy technician vacancies, which hover around 20% for both full-time inpatient and ambulatory positions, affect sterile and nonsterile compounding, inventory management, purchasing, hazardous drug handling, controlled substance system management, medication distribution, supervisory roles, billing and reimbursement, and technician education and training.
Shortages are felt most acutely in advanced pharmacy roles. Pharmacy administrators report shortages of 76% to 84% among technicians who carry out advanced duties, such as tech-check-tech, and those with sterile compounding experience.
New pharmacy services must take backseat to patient care
In order to prioritize patient safety and care, health-system pharmacists may have to make the difficult decision to push other important functions of the pharmacy to the backburner.
“I’m fairly confident in saying that patient safety is not being compromised,” Chen said. “But the shortage is making it a challenge to continue with things like teaching students, or systems may be shifting audits that more senior technicians would have managed.”
In fact, among senior technicians who serve in advanced nontraditional or management roles, close to 7 in 10 have been pulled back into the pharmacy to perform the traditional duties of a CPhT. More than half of hospitals surveyed report postponing planned expansions of pharmacy services. Almost that many reported cutting back on the pharmacy services they already offer.
“Those other activities get put aside because you have to focus your resources on preparing drugs, getting them done safely, and getting them to the patient on time,” Chen said.
Overtime, shifting of responsibilities only a stop-gap
In the face of these shortages, the overwhelming majority of health-system pharmacy administrators—a whopping 97%—report that they are using overtime to fill pharmacy technician shifts. Almost 9 in 10 health-system pharmacies surveyed have had to use pharmacists in technician roles.
At a time when burnout rates run high across health professions, use of overtime to fill holes in pharmacy schedules may be only a stop-gap that, if relied on long-term, could exacerbate turnover.
“Overtime is a temporary solution while you’re trying to refill the funnel,” Chen said.
High turnover may force changes to the profession
Pharmacy technicians would be less likely to leave the profession if they earned more, the ASHP survey found. While salaries are highly variable by state and health care setting, the average annual salary for a pharmacy technician was $35,100 (or $16.87 per hour) in 2020.
Three out of four administrators surveyed had offered base pay increases to help recruit and retain pharmacy technicians. Other recruiting and retention strategies employed to a greater degree in response to high vacancy rates were off-cycle pay raises, shift bonuses, referral bonuses, pay incentives based on vacancy rate, incentive pay to fill vacant positions on schedule, and sign-on bonuses.
Health systems have also made available more opportunities for education, training, professional development, and career advancement for pharmacy technicians.
“We want to change the perception so that hospital executives and leaders understand that there is a unique complexity to what pharmacy technicians do,” Chen said, “to try to get higher wages that would be more commensurate with the work that technicians do in hospitals and health systems.” ■