CVS walkout ends; pharmacists cautiously optimistic amid promises of more staff and relief

CVS pharmacists who staged a walkout over working conditions that imperil patient safety returned to their stores today after they say the company committed to a series of improvements.

The improvements, which include additional staffing and paid overtime, were made in a conference call with pharmacy staff on Wednesday and will affect an estimated 60 stores in the Kansas City region where the walkouts occurred last week and again on Wednesday, organizers told USA TODAY.

Other commitments made to the team include the temporary suspension of the stores’ online vaccination appointment schedulers and the ability of pharmacists to manually cancel vaccination appointments without repercussion, according to two pharmacists who were on the call and independently provided details to USA TODAY.

The detente caps a protest that caught the attention of retail pharmacists nationwide who have similarly struggled with deteriorating working conditions. The Kansas and California pharmacist associations issued statements this week in support of the Kansas City pharmacists, as did the American Pharmacist Association, which represents pharmacists nationwide.

Retail pharmacists have long struggled with increasing workloads amid dwindling staff sizes that they say has limited their ability to safely and accurately fill prescriptions and consult with patients.

The same concerns sparked the walkout in Kansas City.

Pharmacists launched their effort last week by refusing to go to work. Organizers claim their effort shuttered as many as 22 stores, but CVS said it impacted only about 10. A second walkout was staged on Wednesday after a failed negotiation attempt with top CVS executives who had flown to Kansas City to meet with pharmacy teams and walkout organizers.

Prem Shah, CVS' chief pharmacy officer and president of pharmacy and consumer wellness, issued a memo to Kansas City staff after that meeting apologizing for not responding to their concerns sooner.

The commitments made on Wednesday, however, seemed to satisfy the pharmacists, who said they are cautiously optimistic.

“As far as the concrete measures they promised, all that is short-term,” said Corey Schneider, one of the CVS pharmacists in the region. “They have given us more general promises that they’ll do better on hiring and training people – that’s where we need to see more details. I don't think they've had a chance to figure out exactly what that looks like, but I'm personally willing to give them a chance to show us.

“Yesterday and today, things feel positive.”

Schneider said he and others in Kansas City hope CVS will take similar steps to improve pharmacy workloads and patient safety at stores across the nation.

CVS declined to confirm specific commitments made to the Kansas City stores or to say whether those measures would be extended to any of the more than 9,000 pharmacies the company operates nationwide.

Mike DeAngelis, CVS executive director of corporate communications, said the company is “committed to addressing concerns that have been raised by our pharmacists” and that it is “developing a sustainable, scalable action plan that can be put in place in any market where support may be needed.”

Pharmacists aren’t the only ones raising concerns. CVS customers, too, have noticed a decline in service and delays in obtaining their prescriptions.

Kansas City resident Penny Moeller said she has frequented the same CVS for a decade but is about to follow her husband in switching to Walgreens because she doesn’t feel it’s safe there anymore.

“It’s not the fault of the pharmacists who are working very hard and are completely frazzled,” Moller said. “They are running around in there moving as fast as they can, but there are only about two of them, and there is a line of disgruntled customers waiting and it’s just a really bad situation.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: CVS walkout ends; pharmacists to get more staff, paid overtime