BOISE, Idaho — As COVID-19 cases continue to rise because of the Omicron variant, healthcare clinics and pharmacies in Idaho are looking at the possible impacts on their employees.
"There obviously is a fear that at any time the delicate balance we have can be shifted in a direction we don't want it to go," Matthew Murray, a pharmacist and director of operations at Customedica in Boise said.
In the last two years, Murray said business at the Treasure Valley pharmacy has picked up due to the pandemic and the increase in population from the area. Even with a busier workload on employees, he said keeping a positive, stress-free environment for their staff, especially technicians, is at the forefront.
"Technicians are the backbone of this industry and I don't think they get enough credit because they're what really makes a pharmacy work," Murray said. "We try to provide an environment that's not overly stressful to the employees, and then that translates into a better customer service experience we believe for our patients and customers as well."
On a daily basis, staff at Customedica are hard at work filling orders, working with customers and keeping up with safety measures.
Murray said the company has policies in place for staff that need to call out sick, as well as different testing procedures. However, he added those rules change monthly as they try to abide by the Center for Disease and Control's latest recommendations.
Customedica has not felt any staffing shortages due to Omicron Murray said, but it is something they have to think about.
"We can just do the best we can," Murray said. "If something tragic happened it would be a lot of extra hours for the people that are feeling well or are still here."
Maintaining a safe and stress-free atmosphere for employees is also something Medsync, another Idaho-owned pharmacy, strives to do.
The pharmacy manager for their Boise location, Ryan Fuchs, said Medsync will usually try to staff between 10 and 15 technicians and at least three pharmacists at a time.
"I would say we are, as far as a pharmacy goes, probably stacked better than 99 percent of other pharmacies," Fuchs said.
The pharmacy was originally owned by Fuchs' grandfather, but is now co-owned by his father and uncles. He said keeping the pharmacies well-staffed to avoid a stressful workload for employees has been important to all of the owners.
"We definitely have sick calls, we have our employees that have kids that can't go to school or daycare shuts down, I mean you name it," Fuchs said. "I honestly don't remember the last time we had our full crew there. But we're staffed and we have people that can come and help us out when we need it. If we do have someone go down, it's not the end of the world We're staffed well enough where we can make it through those days."
Fuchs said Medsync in Boise has never had to close early or shut its doors because of a lack of staff shortages during the pandemic.
Local clinics, like at Central District Health (CDH) are also not seeing high volumes of staff calling out sick either.
In a statement to KTVB, spokesperson Rachel Garceau wrote; “so far, CDH’s clinic staffing levels have not been negatively impacted due to the surge in COVID-19 cases. This is likely due to our staff’s diligent efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and other viruses through mask-wearing, physical distancing, and good hygiene including frequent handwashing and sanitizing surfaces after every visit."
Garceau added CDH is not able to tell if their clinics' hours would be impacted by staffing shortages, but they are trying to prevent that from happening.
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