Pharmacists Say Drug and Staffing Shortages Are Due to Pandemic, Report Shows

Lauren Forni, MBA, director of clinical solutions, Kit Check, discusses Kit Check’s 2020 Hospital Pharmacy Operations Report, including how the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated drug and staffing shortages, how Kit Check’s solutions aim to alleviate these challenges, and how the report can inform practicing pharmacists and companies dedicated to providing solutions.

Read the full transcript:

Welcome back to PopHealth Perspectives, a conversation with the Population Health Learning Network where we combine expert commentary and exclusive insight into key issues in population health management and more.

Today, we are joined by Lauren Forni, director of clinical solutions at Kit Check. She discusses Kit Check's 2020 Hospital Pharmacy Operations Report, including how the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated drug and staffing shortages, how Kit Check's solutions aim to alleviate these challenges, and how the report can inform practicing pharmacists and companies dedicated to providing solutions. Lauren?

My name is Lauren Forni, and I am the director of clinical solutions at Kit Check. I am a pharmacist and have been in pharmacy leadership roles in both retail and hospital over the last eight years.

My most recent position prior to Kit Check was assistant director of pharmacy services at Brigham and Women's Faulkner Hospital in Boston. At Kit Check, I work with all three of our solutions. First, being our namesake solution, Kit Check, which is the RFID medication tracking solution.

I also support our drug diversion monitoring solution, Bluesight for controlled substances, and lastly, our newest solution, which we launched in December of 2020, Bluesight Insights, which is a pharmaceutical spend optimization and compliance solution.

These three solutions make up our suite of medication intelligence. We aim to provide visibility to health care teams on where medications go on their journey from the manufacturer all the way to the patient. As part of my role at Kit Check, I get to work with hospital teams all over the country to bring in automation and technology that helps solve a lot of the challenges that the health care industry is faced with today.

Can you talk about the seventh annual Hospital Pharmacy Operations Report? What was the overall goal of the report?

We've conducted the Hospital Pharmacy Operations Survey now for seven years, and it remains a cornerstone of our operation. The goal of the report to gain a comprehensive understanding of the state of the industry by capturing a wide variety of perspectives on the top issues that hospital pharmacists are faced with.

The 2020 report specifically surveyed 191 top hospital pharmacy leadership professionals, aimed to uncover key insights from those on the front lines of the global pandemic. The survey respondents, we had an array of respondents that consisted of pharmacy decision-makers in various roles, with 43% of them actually having 20+ years of experience in the field.

We had a range of institution size from small and single hospitals all the way to large health systems being represented. The research for the report was conducted in December of 2020 at the end of an unprecedented year, while the global pandemic definitely tested all aspects of the pharmacy industry.

Not only did it amplify existing challenges, but it definitely brought to light some new perspectives and priorities as well. By surveying and reporting some of the top-of-mind challenges and concerns in the industry, I think we can all partner together on the solutions and the path forward.

Can you discuss the findings of the report? Were you surprised by any of them?

I was unfortunately not surprised by the findings, but some of them were interesting to hear. The findings of this report, with it being conducted at the tail end of 2020, definitely highlighted persistent challenges from past years, but it brought other challenges more to the forefront as well.

Drug shortages were again the number one challenge that hospital teams identified as being faced with today, which is unfortunately not a surprise. Managing supply chain is a cumbersome process, and there's definitely a lack of visibility and transparency when it comes to product, supply, and pricing.

Eighty-six percent of hospital pharmacists reported that drug shortages are occurring even more frequently now, due to the pandemic. One in four pharmacists reported that shortages require more than 10 staff hours to manage, which is certainly believable.

But that time is valuable, and staff could be devoting that to patient care instead of focusing that on managing shortages. Hospital pharmacists also reported staffing shortages as a top challenge, which not only affects the day-to-day activities, but auditing and compliance activities as well.

When teams, for example, have manual diversion processes in place, it takes a lot of time to effectively pull together data, review it, and act on any identified concerns. Already being impacted by staffing shortages and lack of technology in place to help from an efficiency standpoint makes it challenging.

Forty-three percent of pharmacists reported that staff hours have become even more limited as a result of the pandemic, even more so than they were struggling with before. For 25%, staff shortages were actually reported as their number one issue to address.

All team members play a crucial role in overall patient care, so without the appropriate support in all aspects of operations, the team can certainly begin to suffer. It was also reported that 60% of hospital pharmacists had been given a cost savings goal, with some as large as $300,000 for the year, due to budget tightening as a result of COVID-19.

Throughout the pandemic, many hospitals actually were seeing their pharmaceutical spend increase. Whether it to be due to inflation, shortage management, or purchasing of new therapies or existing medications in higher quantities to treat the influx of COVID patients.

Having to then meet these larger savings goals becomes even more of a challenge, especially in the absence of a technology-based solution to help optimize your spend and assist with inventory management.

What I did find interesting about the results was that 25% of those surveyed, even with being impacted financially, reported that the pandemic has made it more likely that they'll implement new technology within the next year.

They reported that the implementation of new technology would have an increased focus on monitoring drug spend, improving operational efficiencies, and tracking medications within the hospital. I think, as we run through the results of the report, I do think it highlights where Kit Check shows commitment to solving identified issues and challenges year after year.

For any solutions-based company, it's so important to recognize and hear the voice of the teams on the front lines.

After entering the industry with an RFID solution, Kit Check was able to, through interactions and conversations with hospital teams, come up with two other solutions—being our Bluesight for controlled substances, the diversion solution software, and Bluesight Insights, the spend optimization and compliance solution—to really help solve for the identified challenges that customers brought forward.

As we can see from the highlighted challenges in the 2020 report, technology and innovation will help combat many ongoing issues, such as the drug shortages and diversion, even as teams are facing staff shortages, tightening budgets, and increasing safety concerns within their organizations.

How will this report help improve the future of care, along with patient and staff outcomes?

The report highlights commonalities across the industry and discusses how different hospital teams plan to address those challenges. Ultimately, it's an informative tool that hospital teams can add to the tool belt.

One of the major roles that pharmacy leaders play is advocating for change to improve, whether it be patient safety, staff safety, operational efficiencies, just to name a few of the areas that they can impact. The more informed pharmacy leaders are, the better that they can articulate the challenges and the value of technology to hospital leaders and decision-makers.

They ultimately have the power to drive the change. The industry needs to improve the future of care through innovation and technology.

The report also helps inform companies like Kit Check that provide solutions and support to hospital teams. The solutions we provide need to solve these challenges in an effective way. Our newest solution, for example, Bluesight Insights, helps hospital teams cut through the complexities of the supply chain to help combat various issues like drug shortages, budget cuts, and allocation of resources.

The findings of this report highlight the need for enhanced inventory visibility and medication intelligence, now more than ever before. By gathering insight and getting a pulse on pharmacy leaders, we can better support practicing pharmacists in their efforts to drive change.

We briefly just hinted at this, but what can practicing pharmacists take away from the report and apply to clinical practice every day?

It's also beneficial to highlight for everyone what is top of mind for pharmacy leaders. For practicing pharmacists, it's important for them to know that they're not alone in their concerns and struggles.

They get to see what their peers are saying about their challenges and how they're working to solve them. Hopefully, the report will inspire practicing pharmacists to take action and be a part of the solution for their team.

Then just overall, is there anything else you would like to add today to this conversation?

I would just like to take the opportunity to thank those working on the front lines of the pandemic. I have been on both sides of the fence throughout the past year, working in the hospital and then transitioning to my role here at Kit Check.

In both roles, I have been immensely impressed with the camaraderie displayed and the care provided by all hospital workers through all the challenges and obstacles that are thrown their way. As the health care industry continues to move forward from this very unprecedented time, I am confident that we can all come together to improve the overall future of care.

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