Dearborn Heights Pharmacy: Shortages in Pharmacists in 2020 and Beyond
For the past few years, it has been obvious,
especially for pharmacies like Dearborn Heights Pharmacy that the job market
for pharmacists has become more competitive and the number of pharmacy schools
has raised. Significant shifts have been noticed in the supply and demand and
employment projections have done a major turnabout, from projected shortages to
an impending surplus.
What is the PDI or the Pharmacy Demand
Indicator? Dearborn Heights Pharmacy would like to define its purpose simply as
an indicator of the perceived demand for pharmacists based on employers’
opinions. It follows a rating scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest and 1
the lowest. The scale is as follows: 5
= High demand: difficult to fill open positions; 4 = Moderate demand: some
difficulty filling open positions; 3 = Demand in balance with supply; 2 =
Demand is less than the pharmacist supply available; 1 = Demand is much less
than the pharmacist supply available.
The Pharmacy Demand Indicator or PDI, reports a
national rating of 3, which indicates equilibrium between the supply and demand
for pharmacists. The reports showed some mild spikes in demand oversupply in
the north-central Midwest, in the central South, and in the Mountain West
regions. Among all of these areas, ratings have risen above 3. However, ratings
have dipped below 3 in many other regions.
This is where the problem lies, figures in the
PDI show also show that there are regions where demand exceeds supply, and
trends in these areas are likely to continue. Such areas are the job of the
pharmacy manager and specialized pharmacy. A study done in 2013 showed that the
need for pharmacy managers was four times greater than the need for
pharmacists. Furthermore, almost three-fourths of all managers were expected to
retire within ten years, which exacerbates the problem. Specialized
pharmacists, on the other hand, are pharmacists who have advanced
qualifications in areas such as MTM, anticoagulation, oncology, among others. Up to this date, Dearborn Heights Pharmacy is
a witness to this continuous trend. The PDI recently showed ratings between 3
and 4, indicating that the demand for these pharmacists are somewhat
outstripping the supply.
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