HOUSTON — Pharmacists and techs at Walgreens are holding walkouts, protesting what they call unsafe working conditions due to understaffing.
A Walgreens pharmacist of 40 years -- who wanted to remain anonymous out of fear of retaliation -- told KHOU 11 that she and her colleagues can't keep up with the workload and fear one mistake could hurt someone.
"I am a fourth-generation pharmacist," she said. "We are one of the few professions where you have to be 100% correct 100% of the time. There is no leeway."
She said the problem Walgreens pharmacists have been having lately is that most of the pharmacies only have one pharmacist per shift, whereas before, they had two or even three per shift. She said that one pharmacist has to complete about half a dozen tasks that can only be done by a licensed pharmacist.
"There are just not enough people to do all the tasks you want done, and just saying do it, it's stupid. No other word for it," she said.
It's why many pharmacists across the country have staged a walk-out, hoping Walgreens make changes.
Some of the tasks licensed pharmacists are required to do daily include:
- Verify every prescription before going into a bag
- Review every prescription entered into the system and make sure it’s entered correctly
- Scan for drug interactions and resolve drug interactions by calling a patient or doctor. Then they must notate what they have done
- Counsel medication or over-the-counter problems or health conditions in person or over the phone
- Prepare a vaccination (don’t have to give it but have to go over the paperwork and prepare the shot for the immunizer)
- Manage the drugs being delivered
- Call patients if they have questions about medication
- Complete learning modules on company time
- Returns or overrides
In a statement, Walgreens said:
"They are engaged and listening to the concerns raised by some of our team members. We are committed to ensuring that our entire pharmacy team has the support and resources necessary to continue to provide the best care to our patients while taking care of their own well-being. We are making significant investments in pharmacist wages and hiring bonuses to attract/retain talent in harder-to-staff locations.”
But pharmacists said salary is not the problem. It's understaffing, and they fear an innocent person is going to suffer because of it.
"A child getting a dose that is 10 times too much. Someone getting a drug they're allergic to."
We asked a Walgreens media representative if the pharmacy would consider adding more pharmacists to a single shift but didn't get a response.
Just a few weeks ago, CVS employees held a protest over the same concerns.