Grove Pharmacy owner Gary Grove knows qualified pharmacists are in high demand across southwest Missouri. In Springfield alone, two CVS Pharmacy locations and five Walmart Neighborhood Markets have opened in the past year, increasing demand for an already scarce resource.
“There is a real shortage in southwest Missouri, central Missouri and the Bootheel,” said Grove, who also is a licensed pharmacist. “We know about 70 percent of [Doctor of Pharmacy] graduates stay where they graduate. St. Louis and Kansas City have the two schools in this state, so they have no problem in those areas.”
Charged with recruitment for the company, Grove General Manager Winn Jester said the 61-year-old family-owned business currently employs five full-time and three part-time pharmacists on staff, split between the its south National and east Sunshine locations. Jester said Grove hasn’t been materially affected by the shortage, but he’s always taking applications as backup.
“I know it’s been a challenge for others,” he said. “When the Neighborhood Markets were opening, Wal-Mart sent letters to all the pharmacists in the area trying to recruit them. There just aren’t enough in this area to fill the need.”
Requests for comment by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. were not returned by press time.
According to the Missouri Economic Research Center’s health care industry labor analysis, pharmacists and pharmacist technicians are among the highest demand jobs in the state. During the past six months, the center estimates the state posted 135 openings for pharmacist jobs and 130 openings for technicians, one of the top six fastest-growing health care professions in the state.
Pharm.D.Academic officials statewide have taken note of a 2011 agreement the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Pharmacy program penned with Missouri State University. A satellite school is slated to open in Brick City for the fall 2014 semester. On Jan. 16, the MSU Board of Governors approved a sublease for nearly $250,000 per year of the 15,000-square-foot fourth floor, and renovations are already under way through general contractor Build LLC.
However, southwest Missouri shouldn’t expect new graduates for at least four years from the program’s start. Modeled after a 2005 agreement in place between University of Missouri-Columbia and UMKC, the Boone County university has since graduated four classes of Doctor of Pharmacy, or Pharm.D., students.
“Once a student is accepted into the Pharm.D. program with UMKC, it is a four-year program,” MSU Provost Frank Einhellig said via email. “However, there are two years of pre-pharmacy work taken at MSU, or perhaps at another location, before one is eligible for entrance into the Pharm.D. Many students that are accepted will take more work than the minimum prerequisite courses, and if history is a guide, at least one-third of these students will have a bachelor’s degree before getting into the Pharm.D. program.”
The MSU program will accept 30 students per year.
“There is abundant evidence that people more often stay and take root in the region where they received their education. Hence, the presence of the Pharm.D. program should increase the supply of very competent pharmacy professionals who enter the workforce in our region,” Einhellig said. “The educational program we are collaborating on with UMKC is a very strong, high-quality program, and the graduates coming out of this program will not only be in good demand but [also] will be well-respected in the health care expansion market of southwest Missouri.”
Pilot funding for the program is through Caring for Missourians, a $40 million initiative launched in 2009 to increase the number of pharmacists, nurses, physicians, dentists and other health care professionals educated at public universities and colleges in the state. The UMKC School of Pharmacy will have complete control of the operations of the program, including the hiring of faculty and staff and scheduling of classes.
Tech crunchMissouri Pharmacy Association CEO Ron Fitzwater said his organization hasn’t had any recent complaints about a pharmacist shortage, but he did note members are starting to see a higher demand for pharmacy technicians.
“There was a shortage of pharmacists several yeas ago, but for our members, that has leveled out,” he said, of the statewide 1,500-member group with the bulk operating in St. Louis and Kansas City, “however, rapid growth in the market always causes demand. Pharmacies are always looking to find good techs these days.”
A two-year degree position, a pharmacist technician generally performs pharmacy-related functions under the direct supervision of a licensed pharmacist.
According to a study by MERIC, actual employment of pharmacy technicians in Missouri grew by more than 5,500 employees between 2000 and 2008, a 110 percent growth rate during the eight-year period. MERIC notes the growth exceeds the normal state average of 28 percent for the past five long-term projections.
Missouri’s long-term projections predict 26 percent growth in pharmacy technician employment through 2018, with more than 5,000 anticipated openings.
“Large increases in employment are expected in grocery stores and other general merchandise stores as more are adding pharmacies. Pharmacy technicians are also projected to grow in electronic shopping and mail-order businesses as more people are able to purchase their prescriptions through the Internet,” the study said.
Springfield’s Ozarks Technical Community and Vatterott Colleges are among the 23 academic institutions across Missouri that provide training to become a pharmacy technician. However, in 2009, only 221 pharmacy technicians graduated in Missouri, less than half of MERIC’s 548 estimated annual openings for pharmacy technicians.
“We are not hearing complaints of a problem yet,” Fitzwater said, “but we could soon.”[[In-content Ad]]
