Vaccines and the Impact on Your Pharmacy
Pharmacists as a profession have had the ability to vaccinate for over 12 years. Many states hopped on the band wagon and allowed us free reign to service the public. While others like my home state were late bloomers. No matter the case your pharmacist has probably administered hundreds if not thousands of shots.
This year we were presented with a new challenge. COVID 19 vaccines. It doesn’t sound so bad right. Just a few shots added into your day. That’s what we all hoped. What its turned into is a logistical nightmare that has almost doubled our workload.
The problem isn’t the shots as much as the paperwork, insurance, return appointments, waste/missed appointments and the extra phone calls we get answering questions about how to get the vaccine, what do they need to bring, where do they go, can they give their appointment to auntie because they have five other appointments scheduled and don’t need yours, can they get it now even if they aren’t qualified, etc. etc.
Our staff is already one person short because a tech moved on after college. Now 3-4 people are doing the work of five. Pharmacsts are staying late and coming early to keep our head above water. It’s stressful and frustrating.
All of the COVID vaccinations and related work is added onto our normal daily work of filling prescriptions, dispensing COVID tests, and giving our normal vaccines.
I’m explaining all of this so the next time you walk into your pharmacy and they say it’s a 45 min wait or your prescription isn’t ready, please be patient. Right now we are the hardest working health professionals out there.
R. Tran Books 