Why Proactive Pharmacy Staffing Is Essential to Patient Safety

The Hidden Safety Risk of Pharmacy Staffing Shortages

Ongoing workforce shortages, burnout and turnover are placing pressure on pharmacy operations. Demand for pharmacy talent has increased significantly in recent years, with pharmacist job postings rising 64% in Q4 of 2025 and technician postings increasing as well. Meanwhile, 88% of hospitals reported shortages of experienced pharmacy technicians, and the National Center for Health Workforce Analysis predicts a nationwide pharmacist shortage by 2038.

While staffing shortages often show up as operational challenges, their most significant consequences may be their impact on patient safety. Every vacancy can increase pressure on pharmacy teams responsible for medication review, verification and patient care coordination.

Pharmacists Are a Critical Line of Defense in Patient Safety

Pharmacy professionals are essential contributors to patient safety. They support safe prescribing, dosing and medication monitoring while playing a key role during care transitions and discharge planning. Their expertise helps identify potential medication-related issues before they affect patients and supports continuity of care across the treatment journey.

Strong pharmacy staffing enables proactive intervention rather than reactive problem-solving. For business leaders, the question isn’t “How do we manage staffing costs?” but “What are we risking when we don’t invest in the pharmacy workforce?”

The True Cost of Understaffing: Medication Errors and Patient Safety

Over time, staffing shortages can contribute to medication review delays, disruptions in continuity of care, treatment coordination and clinical pharmacy services. Workforce gaps can create vulnerabilities in medication management, service reliability and care continuity, but those risks aren’t always reflected in staffing decisions. When pharmacy specialist positions remain vacant or experience high turnover, organizations may face increased clinical risk, operational disruptions and financial consequences.

Burnout Creates Medication Safety Vulnerabilities

Around 70% of pharmacy technicians who left their jobs in 2024 reported that workload and staffing shortages contributed to their decision. However, burnout doesn’t just contribute to workforce shortages. The turnover tied to burnout increases the workload on remaining pharmacists and technicians.

This excessive workload and emotional strain can reduce vigilance, compromise communication and increase the overall risk of error. In fact, the World Health Organization (WHO) lists “increased workload” as a contributing cause of increased risk of medication errors.

Specialization Shortages Complicate Pharmacy Workforce Planning

Persistent shortages of specialized pharmacy professionals in areas like oncology, sterile compounding, investigational pharmacy and infectious disease pharmacy make it harder to maintain operational capacity and continuity.

These specialists help manage complex medication regimens, ensure compliance with treatment protocols and support patients receiving high-risk therapies. But the positions require additional training, credentials and complexity, and the number of pharmacy professionals with these qualifications is a small percentage of an already tight labor market. This makes these professionals difficult to hire and often expensive to backfill.

When pharmacy specialists cannot be staffed and retained, patient treatment suffers. These workforce gaps can have measurable consequences, particularly when organizations lack the pharmacy expertise needed to prevent medication-related issues before they reach patients.

How Strong Pharmacy Staffing Helps Prevent Adverse Drug Events

It’s estimated that almost half of adverse drug events (ADEs) are preventable. Preventable ADEs carry significant costs for both patients and organizations. But studies have found that pharmacist-run medication review programs can lower instances of ADEs, improving patient care and in some cases potentially saving tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in healthcare costs. However, this type of vigilant medication monitoring is possible only when pharmacy teams are appropriately staffed.

Proactive Pharmacy Staffing Is a Patient Safety Investment

Proactive investment in qualified pharmacy talent helps organizations manage the clinical, operational and financial risks of understaffing. This consistent expertise supports patient continuity of care, while pharmacist-led medication reconciliation and discharge interventions can improve medication management and patient outcomes.

How to Build a Proactive Pharmacy Workforce Plan

Step 1: Align workforce planning with patient safety priorities by identifying current and future pharmacy staffing vulnerabilities. This step should consider both open positions and long-term succession planning. Take into account when and where specialized pharmacy skill sets may be needed.

Step 2: Evaluate whether workforce resources are being utilized at the appropriate level of licensure and expertise. Identify how workloads could be restructured to reduce burnout and ensure pharmacists are focusing on higher-level clinical and strategic priorities. This may mean identifying opportunities for automation or additional pharmacy technician support.

Step 3: Based on these observations, decide how to best allocate hiring resources. Prioritize full-time hiring for pharmacy professionals who support core strategic and patient-safety priorities while utilizing interim staffing to provide additional project-based support.