CVS and Walmart are lowering their pharmacy working hours throughout the U.S. to enhance workers’ work-life steadiness because the chains proceed to battle with staffing shortages within the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
CVS mentioned will probably be “adjusting hours in choose shops” come spring, as a part of a periodic evaluate of “working hours to verify we’re open throughout peak buyer demand.” The transfer will have an effect on roughly two-thirds of the corporate’s roughly 9,000 retail pharmacies starting in March, an organization spokesperson mentioned in an announcement to CBS MoneyWatch.
CVS, which is the most important pharmacy chain within the U.S. by income, mentioned it’s making the schedule adjustments so as to “guarantee our pharmacy groups can be found to serve sufferers after they’re most wanted,” a CVS spokesperson mentioned. “If a pharmacy is closed, a affected person can go to any open CVS Pharmacy location for help with their speedy prescription wants,” the spokesperson added.
Walmart reduces hours, raises pay
Walmart additionally mentioned it’s reducing hours at its pharmacy areas nationwide to enhance “work-life steadiness” for its associates.
Walmart pharmacies will probably be open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday via Friday. Beforehand they had been open till 9 p.m. on weekdays.
“Walmart is dedicated to serving to our associates reside higher. Walmart has a powerful and unimaginable pharmacy group, and we’re making this alteration to not solely improve their work-life steadiness but additionally to keep up one of the best stage of service for our prospects,” Walmart mentioned in an announcement to CBS MoneyWatch.
Walmart mentioned it’s making the schedule change based mostly on suggestions from pharmacy workers and prospects.
“By positioning our groups within the hours the place our prospects say they need to go to our pharmacy, we’re higher in a position to ship wonderful customer support and assist our associates as they proceed to serve their communities day by day,” Walmart mentioned.
In mid-June, Walmart introduced larger wages for greater than 36,000 pharmacy technicians, elevating their common hourly pay to greater than $20.
Walgreens hires extra pharmacists, raises pay
A spokesperson for the Walgreens pharmacy chain, the second largest within the U.S., additionally mentioned it has needed to regulate pharmacy hours over the previous 12-plus months on account of staffing challenges.
Walgreens added that it has employed 1000’s of pharmacists in addition to elevated pharmacy employees’ pay to handle ongoing staffing points. It mentioned the efforts are working and the problems are subsiding.
“We’ve got seen constructive staffing tendencies for the previous a number of months as we work to return extra shops to regular working hours,” Walgreens mentioned.
Pharmacies aggressively employed pharmacists and pharmacy technicians beginning in February 2021, when COVID-19 vaccines had been first made out there to most of the people, to speed up efforts to inoculate as many individuals as attainable. Pharmacist job postings surged and drugstore chains provided hefty signing bonuses of as much as $20,000.