California Assembly Discussion on the "Working Conditions of Retail Pharmacists"

On Friday, April 17th, at Exposition Park in Los Angeles, California Assemblymembers, retail chain pharmacists, academics, retail industry leaders, community leaders, and consumers came together to discuss the state of the retail chain pharmacy industry.

Led by California Assemblymember William Monning, who was joined by Assemblymembers John Pérez and Anthony Portantino, the hearing explored the working conditions of retail pharmacists, the role corporate policies play in creating these conditions, and how these conditions can have harmful impacts on consumers. With testimony from pharmacists, industry experts, consumer advocates, and pharmacy students, the discussion was lively and informative.

While many different perspectives were presented, several common themes immerged, including:

• Expanding workloads: Retail chain pharmacists are being asked to do more and more, without additional staff or support. This includes not only filling more prescriptions faster, but also increased insurance compliance paper work, Medicare and other counseling requirements, and most recently immunizations in pharmacies.
  
  
• Importance of Counseling: While many of these responsibilities by themselves are unproblematic, these additional responsibilities are being placed on top of already impossibly packed workloads. This makes pharmacists worried about their ability to perform all of these responsibilities well, and to do what they see as their more important role-providing the best care and counseling to patients.
  
  
• Quality Care: Since retail pharmacists are on the front lines of the health care system, and are some of the most accessible medical professionals to patients, it is essential that they be given the tools and support to provide patients with the highest quality of care. This includes time to counsel and also translation and other support to effectively serve diverse patient populations.
  

Our thanks to everyone who joined us on the 17th, and to the participants who made the event possible. We look forward to hearing your feedback on these important issues.

Meet Ray F.

My name is Ray Funatsu and I've been a pharmacist since 1963. In '74 I started working as a manager with Sav-on until '94; that's when I stepped down because it got to be a little too much. I worked until 2000 and retired and now I'm on-call.