How Technology Can Reduce Pharmacy Staff Burnout
Companies like ShiftRx are using technology to help solve the staffing shortage crisis in health care.
Pharmacies—and the role they play in communities—are integral to our health care system. However, many struggle with short staffing, leading to long wait times, increased workload, and burnout, causing many to leave the profession. Difficulty in staffing has led many pharmacies, especially independent pharmacies, to close down either temporarily or permanently.
Addressing staffing shortages is crucial to ensuring continued care for the communities that pharmacies serve. | Image credit: Aliaksandr Marko - stock.adobe.com
Chain pharmacies have been susceptible to the same difficulties, with headlines outlining poor staffing conditions1 and unplanned closures.2 The most recent in the news, Walgreens, announced its plans to formally shutter more than 1200 stores throughout the next year.3
Onboarding new providers to fill the gaps creates more challenges for those responsible for staffing pharmacies: Even if applicants are found and positions are filled, high turnover rates are costly and only leads to increased pressure on staff. As a diverse team with firsthand experience in addressing these challenges, ShiftRx is taking the initiative in improving the pharmacy industry.
How Can ShiftRx Help?
Austin, Texas-based ShiftRx is an early-stage startup looking to solve the health care staffing shortage. The company launched in August 2023 and operates with more than 3000 active pharmacy professionals and 200 independent pharmacies across Texas, California, New York, New Jersey, and Florida. Its waitlist in the remaining states exceeds more than 12,000 pharmacy professionals.
ShiftRx is building a community that shifts towards smarter staffing, together. Although the company is relatively young, the ShiftRx team has big ambitions and the drive to make an even larger potential impact. ShiftRx’s platform allows pharmacies to streamline their staffing process, enabling staff to source, credential, and self-schedule qualified providers and ensuring that pharmacies are always staffed with pharmacists that are both qualified and prepared.
READ MORE: Student, Staffing Shortages Continue to Impact Pharmacy Profession
The Critical Role of Pharmacy Staffing During Natural Disasters
During environmental disasters, such as the devastating Hurricanes Helene and Milton, pharmacies play a vital role in patient care, making proper staffing levels especially critical to serve those communities in need. Florida is no stranger to hurricanes, which often leave devastation in their wake. Residents are facing numerous health challenges, from managing chronic conditions without access to regular health care to addressing injuries and illnesses that arise from storm-related damages. As essential points of care, pharmacies play a critical role in providing medications, administering vaccines, and offering medical advice. However, these facilities are frequently left understaffed as health care workers evacuate or face personal challenges during natural disasters.
The result of this lack of staffing means that remaining health care infrastructure in affected areas often becomes overwhelmed. During these difficult times, the ShiftRx platform is more than just a staffing solution—it becomes a lifeline for communities in crisis. By tapping into a nationwide pool of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, ShiftRx can efficiently provide staff in disaster-stricken areas, ensuring that pharmacies remain open and operational. This rapid response is crucial, not only to fill prescriptions, but also to provide the critical health care services that communities depend on during emergencies.
Using AI to Solve the Problem
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a breakthrough in innovation that has allowed for major technological advancements, including in health care; AI has revolutionized health care and is beginning to revolutionize the pharmaceutical industry.
After leaving their roles as health care providers due to burnout, Autumn-Kyoko Cushman, CEO of ShiftRx, came together with co-founder Leann Haddad to figure out a way to deploy AI as an innovative solution to solve the staffing problem. The solution? ShiftRx utilizes AI by training large language models (LLMs) in health care facility workflows to create individualized onboarding modules for each facility. This allows providers to familiarize themselves with both the expectations of the shift and the facility’s unique clinical workflow prior to working a shift. These LLMs improve efficiency, reduce training time, and cut costs.
“These are great places where AI can be applied,” Cushman said. “If you can automate some of these mundane, routine tasks, such as sourcing, credentialing, training and onboarding, scheduling, and paying these providers, then you can reduce the cost burden to facilities.”
By reducing the burden on existing staff, who would otherwise need to train new hires, AI health care providers concentrate on patient care. ShiftRx’s utilization of AI in streamlining onboarding illustrates the startup’s commitment to not only improving operational efficiency but also the overall working environment for health care providers.
Leveraging PRNs to Increase Staffing
“We’ve found ourselves in a compounding crisis, where we have more open roles than the current supply can fill. Temporary staffing agencies do a poor job of implementing providers into a new clinical workflow; they have the overhead of recruiters, and they’re expensive and time-consuming,” Cushman said. “When you reduce the price of temporary staffing, you can pay providers more and replace much of these administrative burdens that all too often fall on the provider. Instead, you can let them focus on what matters most: patient care. We need to take providers back to just that, being a provider of care for patients. And in our current climate, they just can’t do it if they’re underpaid, overwhelmed, and under-supported from short staffing.”
The ShiftRx approach to the utilization of the freelance economy sets it apart from other staffing solutions: Tapping into the gig economy allows for more flexibility in fulfilling shifts and outreach to a wide range of professionals. [Pro re nata staff members] (PRNs) allow providers to weather fluctuating demands. This new way of staffing allows pharmacies to shift their focus to what matters: exceptional patient care.
About the Authors
Kate Moravec, CPhT and Anam Jalaluddin are Operations Interns at ShiftRx.
Kate is a third-year undergraduate student pursuing human biology at the University of Texas. Kate is also a Certified Pharmacy Technician (CPhT) who has experience in retail pharmacies and has dealt with staffing shortages firsthand.
Anam is a fourth-year undergraduate student pursuing public health at the University of Texas. Anam has a strong background in the intersection of public health and business, allowing her to approach healthcare operations with an interdisciplinary perspective.
As members of the ShiftRx team, they both bring valuable insight into the pharmacy staffing crisis and are actively combating it through ShiftRx to increase the level of care and eliminate burnout for pharmacy staff.
References
Le Coz E. Prescription for disaster: America’s broken pharmacy system in revolt over burnout and errors. USA Today. October 26, 2023. Accessed November 5, 2024. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2023/10/26/pharmacy-chains-dangerous-conditions-medication-errors/71153960007/
Williams K. Pharmacy deserts are appearing across US as Rite Aid, Walgreens, CVS drug store closures spread. CNBC. October 11, 2024. Accessed November 5, 2024. https://www.cnbc.com/2024/10/11/pharmacy-deserts-across-us-drug-stores-closures-spread.html
Murphy T. Walgreens to close 1200 stores as US pharmacies struggle to define a new role. AP News. October 15, 2024. Accessed November 5, 2024. https://apnews.com/article/walgreens-closing-drugstores-fiscal-fourth-quarter-5df931861e1e4111eaa5ef2372ec173a
