Oxford CVS struggles to keep up after Walgreens shutdown but new rules could help
By Chloe McKinney
Miami University journalism student
Before November 2023, Oxford had four pharmacies available to its more than 23,000 residents. Since Walgreens closed on Nov. 18, only three pharmacies are left to supply the city, leaving pharmacists and pharmacy technicians overworked.
One of those pharmacies is CVS where Emma Seifert works as a pharmacy technician.
“We transfer everything in individually,” Seifert says. “And I’d say for weeks, we had a stack of [transfer] papers … like two inches thick.”
Some people weren’t surprised when the Oxford Walgreens shut its doors last November. One retired Oxford resident, Marilyn Elzey, says she suspected the store had issues.
“[Walgreens] had such a big parking lot … I would drive past them every day and same thing with some of my friends, the parking [lot] is empty,” Elzey says. “And we always wondered, ‘Are they getting any business?’”
However, the Oxford CVS and Walgreens are only two of many pharmacies in Ohio that have been struggling recently.
Located on the corner of S. College Avenue and W. Spring Street, CVS is the closest pharmacy to on-campus Miami University students who account for a large portion of Oxford’s population. Making what used to be Walgreens the second-closest pharmacy to the Miami campus, with nearly a 40-minute walk from the farthest dorm hall.
Although all Walgreens customers had their prescriptions automatically transferred to Kroger Pharmacy, that didn’t keep customers from going elsewhere. Elzey picks up her prescriptions through CVS and noticed an increase in business after the shutdown.
“When [Walgreens] shut down CVS was the number one place to go,” Elzey says. “And especially for students because it’s closer, more convenient.”
Autumn Allen, a junior media and communications major at Miami, transferred to the Oxford CVS from a Middletown location several months ago after becoming a main-campus student. Since then, getting her prescriptions in a timely manner has been difficult. She remembers one day she was sick and her doctor had sent her prescription to CVS that same day.
“There was a line all the way down the store,” Allen says. “And I walked to the front and asked how long the wait would be for pick up and they said at least 45 minutes to an hour … as soon as I got home and settled down they texted me.”
Although long wait times can be frustrating, especially when sick, customers like Elzy expected that things would get hectic when Walgreens closed.
“I knew they were frustrated,” Elzey says. “I knew they were gonna have a hard time. So I was very patient.”
Even before the shutdown, the pharmacists and pharmacy technicians at CVS dealt with many customers and prescriptions a day. Seifert says it’s a race every shift to get prescriptions out on time, especially when they are understaffed.
“There’s always at least three [pharmacy technicians] per shift,” Seifert says. “Sometimes there’s four to five and even with that, I feel like we are always running around and trying to work as fast as we can.”
In Allen’s case, however, long wait times aren’t the only problem she has had to deal with since transferring. She has also had problems with her prescriptions being moved over and said CVS once lost her prescription for several hours.
“It was just really confusing,” Allen says. “I feel like there’s just not [much] communication that’s going on between them.”
Unfortunately, issues with staffing and workload at pharmacies in Ohio have been a problem for several years now, especially at CVS pharmacies throughout the region. The Ohio Board of Pharmacy found 22 CVS locations across the state that were severely understaffed to the point of safety concerns between 2020–2023. Now the pharmacy chain must pay $1.5 million in penalties to Ohio.
Those CVS locations were required to implement some new changes. Cameron McNamee, director of policy and communications for the Board of Pharmacy, said they often saw the same issues in pharmacy chains.
“With the larger corporations, there’s obviously levels of management and we saw that with the CVS case,” McNamee says, “a lot of time they were asking for more help but no additional support was coming.”
The Board of Pharmacy’s investigations were prompted by a 2021 survey that shed light on the working conditions of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. As a result of its conclusions, the agency created some new rules that apply to all Ohio pharmacies that it started enforcing on May 1.
These five new rules say pharmacies:
- Need adequate staff and should prevent conditions where a pharmacist cannot safely perform their job
- Cannot institute a quota where ancillary services that pharmacists can provide are limited except drug distribution
- Must require breaks for all pharmacy staff and pharmacists cannot work longer than a 13-hour shift with eight hours between shifts
- Have a three-day window to fill a prescription or a five-day window for an automatic refill.
- Must have a way to report staffing issues or concerns and policies limiting pharmacy hours or other services provided if the pharmacist feels it is unsafe
Before releasing the new rules, the Board of Pharmacy sent out a survey to Ohio pharmacists to get their reactions. McNamee said the results were generally positive, especially when it came to having mandated breaks.
“You know, we heard a lot about how [pharmacists] were working, working, working without any break,” McNamee says. “So we felt like, based on the feedback we got that this would help.”
Unlike other states, Ohio’s Board of Pharmacy conducts its own investigations. McNamee said over 2000 pharmacy inspections are done each year.
“So the reports of staffing concerns, they have to maintain that documentation at the pharmacy on site,” McNamee says. “And as part of our routine inspection process, we’re going to be reviewing those … the goal is to identify problems before they get to a point where the pharmacy has to shut down.”
Seifert said she has only worked once since the beginning of May and has not noticed any changes yet. However, she did notice a shift when the CVS she works at got a second pharmacist on staff recently and hired more technicians.
“I feel like now my shifts are easier to handle,” Seifert says. “We have enough people now where you don’t feel like you are running around like a chicken with your head cut off. You are kind of running around with a purpose.”
McNamee said that since COVID, pharmacists and pharmacy technicians have had a large burden on them. He hopes that these new rules will help alleviate some of that.
“I think that’s the beauty of having rules is that you can make tweaks to them much easier than you could laws,” McNamee says.
McNamee said the board is already working on a follow-up survey to see how pharmacies are acclimating to the new rules and if any changes need to be made. He expects the new survey will go out at the end of the year.
