The Medication Shortage and Another American Pharmacy Hero

Since the onset of this year's cold and flu season that began in early November of 2022, pharmacists nationwide have been dealing with worried parents seeking infant and "kiddie" medications, plus pediatric medicine formulations such as acetaminophen and ibuprofen that have become short in supply, including the name brands themselves like Tylenol and Motrin. With the current existing "trifecta" of viral illnesses sweeping the USA (also commonly referred to as the“tripledemic”) of COVID-19, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), an upswing in the number of cases of respiratory infections arrived amid a nationwide shortage of certain essential medications. The end result is that there’s a lot of demand right now and not that much supply of the medicines or products available on the shelves of many drugstores and retail pharmacies.

While infant and children’s medications have captured both the media's and the public's primary attention, they're not the only medications that are currently in short supply at US retail pharmacies. Patients with preexisting allergies and other respiratory conditions are also finding empty shelves where items such as Delsym cough syrup and Mucinex are no longer available for purchase. There are sometimes still other generic cold and congestion products that can be found, but no longer the same volume of name brand products or dosage types that were previously seen on most drugstores' shelves. Additionally, when supply levels are limited, most pharmacy suppliers usually utilize an allocation system, limiting the number of units that an individual pharmacy can order. These allocations can actually lead to higher demand levels with limited relief in sight.

An American Pharmacy Hero In Austin, Texas 

The current medication shortage, in addition to the numerous other challenges that the pharmacy profession is facing (such as the current pharmacy staffing shortages of both pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, the ever evolving changes and expansion of a pharmacist's job roles and duties, the "skyrocketing" costs for certain medications, and the decreased insurance drug reimbursements for prescriptions dispensed, are just several examples), has led to the emergence of many "Pharmacy Heroes" throughout the entire American healthcare system. Showing their ingenuity, dedication, energy, and willingness to help solve the problems that pharmacists and pharmacies face today, these American Pharmacy Heroes come in all different "sizes & shapes'', inclusive of race, ethnic heritage, age, sex, educational background, work environment, and/or geographical location. From small communities & towns throughout rural America, to the large metropolitan cities, these emerging American Pharmacy Heroes are helping us all to face the existing problems and challenges through their innovation, courage, and "good old American ingenuity"!

One such American Pharmacy Hero is Rannon Ching, the PIC (Pharmacist-in-Charge) at Tarrytown Pharmacy that's located in Austin, Texas. Way back last August Ching started to notice a rapid decline of inventory available from the suppliers that he routinely purchased the majority of his medications from. According to Ching when the medication shortages rapidly began escalating, "Now when we look to see how much is available, nothing’s there at all.”

So Rannon took action and convinced his partners to allow for the medication compounding expansion capabilities of the pharmacy. This included not only the equipment purchase and cost of the ingredients, but also training of the existing pharmacy talent (both pharmacists and pharmacy technicians). Ching said Tarrytown Pharmacy "was already prepared" when the coronavirus pandemic initially began, but their compounding was focused primarily on preparing supplies such as alcohol based hand sanitizers. Now, facing the medication shortages, Tarrytown Pharmacy has been stepping up its compounding services to a continuously expanding list of products that they supply. “We’ve been able to keep a kind of slow trickle of certain products like ibuprofen infant formulations coming, but the acetaminophen has been a lot more challenging,” he said. “We’re just really hearing from a lot of people just calling around, saying that their local pharmacy or the grocery store chain doesn’t have it. So they’re trying to find anyone that does." 

Ching stated that while it's been extremely satisfying compounding medications to help patients receive the medicines they sorely need, it's important to take note that while Tarrytown Pharmacy can compound acetaminophen and ibuprofen, they can only offer it to customers with a doctor's prescription, since the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) hasn’t declared the infant and children’s acetaminophen shortage a “true national backorder.” For parents seeking child-friendly medications, Ching recommends that patients and their families ask their child’s pediatrician for a prescription that Tarrytown can then fulfill. “Because the FDA hasn’t declared this a true national shortage, we’re able to compound ibuprofen and acetaminophen, however, it still requires a prescription, and so it just leads to a little bit of, kind of red tape in regards to how freely we can kind of distribute certain compound items'', Ching emphasized.

 In any case, many citizens of Austin, TX are extremely grateful these days to Ching's and Tarrytown Pharmacy for the actions that they took and for their efforts. Austin is the capital city of Texas, as well as the fourth-most-populous city in Texas. It's also the eleventh most-populous city in the United States, with almost a million residents living in the city (an estimated population of 964,177 according to the most recent US Census report), and is actually only eighty miles from downtown San Antonio, both cities falling along what's known as the "Interstate 35 Corridor". Many observers believe that the two cities will someday form a new "metroplex" similar to the one seen in the Dallas and Fort Worth metropolitan areas.

Residents of Austin are known as Austinites and the city's official slogan promotes Austin as "The Live Music Capital of the World", a reference to the city's many musicians and live music venues, as well as the long-running PBS TV concert series Austin City Limits. Austin is also the southernmost state capital in the contiguous United States, with a number of Fortune 500 companies having their headquarters or regional offices in the city, including 3M, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Amazon, Apple, Facebook (Meta), Google, IBM, Intel, NXP Semiconductors, Oracle, Tesla, Texas Instruments, and Whole Foods Market. Dell's worldwide headquarters is also located in the nearby suburb of Round Rock.

About Healthcare Consultants Pharmacy Staffing

 If you are a pharmacy owner or manager, HCC Pharmacy Staffing can find you the best qualified talent (both pharmacists and technicians) available to meet your needs in almost every situation. With over three decades of experience in pharmacy staffing, HCC is known nationally for being able to match the right candidate to the right job, plus has been providing temporary staffing for pharmacies in all 50 states, as well as providing relief pharmacy staffing during emergency situations. We work with owners, HR departments, and pharmacy managers of every type and size of pharmacy business and operation, from the small independent retail community pharmacies to the large national pharmacy groups. We are therefore able to meet almost every individual pharmacy's specific needs when it comes to finding the right staffing talent, including specialty pharmacies. If you're interested in finding out how HCC can help your pharmacy business meet your specific staffing needs, then call us today at (800) 642-1652, or simply fill out our easy-to-use online form now, and an experienced, in-house HCC staffing expert will get back to you as soon as possible.
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The same is true if you are a pharmacist or pharmacy technician who's interested in changing your current job position and exploring new professional opportunities and settings to practice in. With current job openings and exciting opportunities available throughout the US, HCC Pharmacy Staffing can help you to find the best possible jobs available to match your specific individual lifestyle needs and work requirements. Whatever market segment that a pharmacist or tech is looking to work in, we can help! If you are a pharmacist looking to switch jobs or relocate, we urge you to talk with us. With positions immediately available, contact us today online or call us at 800-642-1652 now to get started.