El Paso experiences extreme shortage of pharmacists

EL PASO, Texas El Paso has such a critical shortage of pharmacists that some pharmacies are calling on retirees for help while others are offering hefty bonuses to sign on, according to published reports.

“There’s a terrible shortage of pharmacists, and we’ve had this situation for a long time,” said Barry Coleman, a retired pharmacist and former El Paso pharmacy owner. “The big chains like Walgreens and Wal-Mart offered sign-up bonuses of $10,000 to $20,000, but our operation was too small to do that, and we lost pharmacists,” said Coleman, who is on an advisory board for the University of Texas at El Paso College of Health Sciences.

Coleman continued by stating, “The pharmacy program with UT-Austin and UTEP gets about 300 or more applicants but accepts only about 10 students on average. The big salaries they can get these days is also a factor.”

Mark Miles, director of the El Paso Pharmacy Association, said El Paso has 299 pharmacists “but needs about 100 more.”

Since 1999, the program has graduated 46 pharmacists. A 2003 study showed El Paso had 42 pharmacists for each 100,000 population, compared with the Texas state average of 73 per 100,000.