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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowFaced with a steady rise in prescription drugs to fill and a shortage of pharmacy technicians to fill them, Eskenazi Health this month opened its new $10 million high-tech pharmacy center on the northwest side of Indianapolis.
The public health system, owned and operated by Health and Hospital Corporation of Marion County, said the 32,000-square-foot facility transforms how it fills prescriptions, which totaled more than 1.3 million in 2024.
Eskenazi Health Pharmacy Director Christopher Wickesberg said the system has seen about a 60% increase in the number of prescriptions filled over the past five years.
“That comes at a time of some significant workforce challenges, particularly in the recruitment and retention of pharmacy technicians,” he said. “We realized that there was no way that we were going to be able to hire our way out of this hole, and that we really needed to embrace technology to fill prescriptions.”
The Eskenazi Health Pharmacy Central Fulfillment Center uses automated processes to expand prescription filling capacity. Eskenazi said the center is open but is still being ramped up to full capacity. A centralized call center is planned to route incoming calls to trained pharmacy staff located within the new facility.
Eskenazi previously filled outpatient prescriptions at the eight retail pharmacies within Eskenazi Health Center and Sandra Eskenazi Mental Health Center sites or on the Eskenazi Health downtown campus.
Pharmacy technicians, who help pharmacists dispense prescription drugs to patients or health providers, have been in short supply in recent years, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic.
A survey of independent pharmacy owners and managers released last year by the National Community Pharmacists Association found pharmacy technicians were the in the highest demand for workers (76%), followed by clerks and front-end staff (42%), pharmacists (36%) and delivery drivers (17%).
The Eskenazi Health Pharmacy department has more than 200 employees, divided roughly evening between pharmacists and technicians. He said that 1-to-1 ratio is unsustainable to continue filling prescriptions at the growing rate. He said a more typical rate at a retail pharmacy or health system is about three technicians for each pharmacist.
Eskenazi estimated that within five years it would fill about 60% of its prescriptions at the center.
The rise in prescriptions has multiple causes, including new medications and high levels of chronic conditions such as diabetes.
But Wickesberg said Eskenazi’s role as a provider of care to those with low incomes means many of its patients rely on the system’s pharmacy.
“Patients cannot get access to affordable medications elsewhere,” he said. “They have to come to us. So really, this investment is a way to ensure that we are able to meet the medication needs of our community for many, many years to come.”
Wickesberg said the center helps package medications that are simpler and easier to use for patients. Specialized equipment is used for blister packaging to help patients who are on complex medication regimens.
Prescriptions will be sent to an Eskenazi Health retail pharmacy or delivered to the patients’ homes.
Certain drugs such as antibiotics and other medications that are prescribed and needed same-day will continue to be filled directly at Eskenazi Health retail pharmacy locations within the health centers and on the downtown campus.
Eskenazi said the efficiency gains from the new center allows for more time on services including administering vaccines, providing medication therapy management and transitions of care services.
The new fulfillment center is not open to the public.
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When people say there is a shortage of pharmacists and technicians, what they mean is that there is a shortage of technicians willing to work for barely above minimum wage and pharmacists who are responsible for filling and checking hundreds, even thousands of prescriptions per day without enough help, no lunch breaks and long hours. Perhaps this is a way to combat some of those issues.
I think you are correct. Based on experiencing my Walgreens collapse under its own weight of mismanagement, under staffing, low pay, and overworked pharmacists, it had to literally shut down.