The shortage of healthcare professionals across the healthcare value chain continues to challenge providers. We’re all familiar with the shortage of nurses and the impact it is having on hospital care delivery. A recent study features the shortage of primary care physicians and its impact on potential healthcare reform and the medical home model. And now this article by Modern Medicine discusses the shortage of pharmacists across the country. This is a critical challenge for pharmacies as the retail pharmacy market continues to shift its model and offer an increasing number of health-related services. At the cornerstone of this strategy is the pharmacist.

The combination of an aging population, more chronic-disease patients, a renewed focus on the medical home model, and an increasing number of community-based pharmacy wellness programs, has created an ever-growing reliance on pharmacists. They need to be able to deliver the necessary counseling and patient/consumer interaction to deliver against some of these new expectations, while continuing to maintain their primary responsibility – filling prescriptions correctly.

The issue of health professional shortages will continue to be a roadblock to health reform efforts if we do not find some way to address it relatively quickly.