On the supply side, the report showed graduates of the nation's 82 pharmacy schools together creeping upward toward an annual total of 8,000. In 1999, retail pharmacists filled 2.8 billion prescriptions, up 44 percent since 1992. Dealing with insurance companies and other third-party payers takes up 10 to 20 percent of a retail pharmacist's time. These settings need pharmacists too, more of them all the time. More awareness of prescription errors and the potential for them.
Pharmacists are under pressure to spend more time reviewing prescriptions and counseling patients.
These trends add not only to the time it takes pharmacists to do their work but also to the knowledge they must bring to it. And that means more education. It now takes five years to get a bachelor of science degree in pharmacy, the minimum for entering the field. Beginning in 2004, that degree will be phased out and only a six-year doctor of pharmacy degree will be accredited. Pharmacy schools and colleges are in various stages of making the shift.