4 Major Staffing Shortages That Could Cause Big Problems for You

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It’s not just the medications you need that are in short supply these days—it’s also the people filling those prescriptions.

According to a Jan. 2023 report from the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA), two-thirds of pharmacy owners are struggling to fill open staffing positions right now. And at nationwide drugstores, this pharmacist shortage is already affecting customers. In Dec. 2022, both Walgreens and Rite Aid told USA Today that they had begun to adjust pharmacy hours as a result of staffing issues.

Last month, CVS announced that it would cut pharmacy hours this spring amid the pharmacist shortage. Amy Thibault , CVS Pharmacy’s lead director of external communications, told USA Today that roughly two-thirds of the company’s retail pharmacies will reduce hours starting in March. Reduced hours will occur during times when there is low patient demand or when stores have only one pharmacist at the pharmacy.

But Thibault told USA Today that CVS will periodically review operating hours to ensure stores are open during high-demand times. “By adjusting hours in select stores this spring, we ensure our pharmacy teams are available to serve patients when they’re most needed,” she said.

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Communities around the U.S. have been facing frustrating postal problems for quite some time now.

“It’s no secret that the Postal Service is facing current staffing and hiring challenges encountered by nearly every industry,” Kim Frum , a USPS spokeswoman, told EastIdahoNews.com. “When a customer doesn’t get daily mail service, we understand their frustration because in addition to being Postal employees, we are also Postal customers.”

“We take pride in the more than 200 years of consistent service to the nation and the communities we serve. This is why we are hiring so many employees—because our customers rely on us and we need to get back to reliable, daily mail service,” Frum added in her statement to EastIdahoNews.com.

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A shortage of EMTs is something of an emergency. According to a 2022 American Ambulance Association (AAA) study, the overall 2021 turnover rate for full-time and part-time EMTs was 36 percent, while it was 27 percent for full-time paramedics, and 30 percent for part-time paramedics.

As a result, 39 percent of part-time EMT and 55 percent of part-time paramedic positions went unfilled last year.

“It’s an absolute crisis . We have continual paramedics hitting the exit doors and leaving the field,” AAA President Shawn Baird told CBS News in Dec. 2022. “It can mean the difference of having an ambulance or not having an ambulance.”

Many EMTs and paramedics have left voluntarily, with Pew Charitable Trusts explaining that “low wages, a lack of work-life balance, and burnout” are among some of the major factors causing them to leave their positions.

“The public doesn’t see where there’s no one in the station, and volunteer services are trying to muster a crew,” Dia Gainor , executive director of the National Association of State EMS Officials and former director of the Idaho EMS office for 19 years, told Pew.

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Staffing struggles may not only affect the human members of your family, however. Animals are also suffering right now due to a lack of vets.

Mars Veterinary Health said the industry is currently “facing a chronic shortage of veterinary professionals ,” with an estimated shortage of nearly 15,000 veterinarians expected to exist by 2030. One of the largest contributing factors? A rise in pet ownership amid the pandemic.

“We could actually operate our wellness clinics six days a week but we can only operate it three days a week now,” Wilkinson said. “We worry that a lot of pets that go without care will end up being euthanized or end up going back home where they will get sicker and maybe have a very traumatic death.”