Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Community Pharmacist Patient Care and Future Workforce Needs
Description:
A recent policy brief from the University of Washington Center for Health Workforce Studies highlighted the need to change policies and financing in order to better leverage the pharmacy workforce to improve care. The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in significant changes for the pharmacy workforce, particularly the community pharmacy workforce. With health systems managing the large influx of critical COVID-19 patients, community pharmacists were called upon to provide timely and convenient care for chronic and acute conditions alike while managing a shortage of a critical team member, pharmacy technicians. Further, pharmacists’, student pharmacists’, and pharmacy technicians’ scopes of practice were temporarily expanded at the federal level to enable COVID-19 testing and vaccination at community pharmacies. This study expanded on the previous policy brief to investigate how the COVID-19 pandemic changed the types and volume of patient care services provided at community pharmacies and the post-pandemic community pharmacy workforce needs.
Publication under review.
Lead Reseacher: Jennifer Bacci, PharmD, MPH, BCACP.
Contact Info: jbacci@uw.edu
Funder:
HRSA: HWRC Allied Health
Status:
Complete