SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Pharmacies have been overwhelmed with phone calls, drive-thru COVID-19 testing, vaccine distribution, and along with these pandemic stresses, many pharmacists have also had to worry about meeting business quotas.
Senator Josh Newman, D-Fullerton, is hoping to pass legislation that would prohibit quotas on prescriptions. The Orange County state senator recently introduced a bill that would give pharmacists the sole discretion to determine the appropriate amount of time to fill prescriptions.
Veronica Bandy, a practicing pharmacist and clinical professor at the University of the Pacific, explains the most important thing she teaches her students is to provide the best care for patients possible.
She says she opposes performance quotas because they can be a dangerous practice for patients and pharmacists alike that a number of chain pharmacies use to increase their profits.
“We would not want to have business quotas for other health care providers, such as physicians, surgeons, we would not want for them to have quotas because that could negatively cause patient harm potentially for those patients,” she said. “So having less distractions by worrying about quotas allows for better care and better outcomes.”
Bandy supports Newman’s new bill, SB 362, which would ban quotas some pharmacists are required to meet. The state senator says the legislation would make it so California pharmacists would not have to fill a predetermined number of prescriptions per hour.
“In addition to their duties as health care professionals, they’ve been given additional corporate or sales responsibilities, for instance to enroll as many people into auto-refill programs or other sorts of incentives, and those things are probably good for the corporate bottom line but they’re not necessarily good for patients safety,” Newman noted.
As the son of a doctor, the lawmaker explains he’s always respected the work of health care professionals and hopes his legislation will provide some relief for pharmacists in California.
“The goal here is to free them up to do those jobs for which they took a sworn oath and eliminate those things that get in the way of safety and health,” Newman said.
Dr. Bandy believes SB 362 is a good first step to reducing some of the distractions pharmacists face while trying to provide quality care.
“To have these business quotas removed would be very helpful at the time. Pharmacists, the role that we play has changed over the years,” Bandy said. “We’re not just dispensing medications, it’s not just about the product, it’s about the patient.”
The state’s largest organizations representing pharmacists, the California Pharmacists Association and the United Food and Commercial Workers Western States Council, are both co-sponsors of the bill.