Why do pharmacists get paid so much?

Ok, go get your healthcare from people with less schooling and we'll see what outcomes you get.I really don't know anybody that get s pharmacy degree 6 years post HS. I don't think its very common but don't have the statistics. You can do your BS/MD in 6 years after HS but the number of people that do this are extremely small. There aren't many spots for these accelerated programs.Whether college is necessary for applying to professional degrees is debatable, but that's the rules.

RE MBA wrote:

chinocochino wrote:

Are you being serious? Pharmacists have to do a four year university, get good grades, then get accepted to and complete a four year doctoral degree. Not easy stuff.

Pay should be based on the value of the product, not the expense/difficulty of the training.

Can someone tell me what a clinical pharmacist is?

Rojo,A clinical pharmacist is part of hospital/clinic staff that:1. Checks the medications the patient is taking and adjusts accordingly. (When a patient is on 20-30 drugs it takes a lot of work to figure out all the interactions).2. Prepares medications for patients. (And screens prescriptions).3. Creates a plan of action with the healthcare staff/patient.Pretty important stuff.

rojo wrote:

Can someone tell me what a clinical pharmacist is?

The whole system is a scam. I got tired of paying for old men to get viagra and people who visit the doctor when they get the sniffles, the fatties on diabetes meds, or the lifers addicted to lifetime medications. I cancelled my health insurance and I only pay out of pocket now. I don't get regular checkups or flu shots or any vaccines, etc. If something is bothering me, I'll do my own research online and handle it myself. If I can't figure it out then I would consider visiting a doctor at that point. I'm not one of those idiots that goes to the ER because of a cold or stomach bug. I put the savings into the bank to use in the event of a rainy day. I am a capitalist not a socialist.

Oh and I get all my meds for pennies on the dollar in Mexico.

Da_Runner wrote:

The whole system is a scam. I got tired of paying for old men to get viagra and people who visit the doctor when they get the sniffles, the fatties on diabetes meds, or the lifers addicted to lifetime medications. I cancelled my health insurance and I only pay out of pocket now. I don't get regular checkups or flu shots or any vaccines, etc. If something is bothering me, I'll do my own research online and handle it myself. If I can't figure it out then I would consider visiting a doctor at that point. I'm not one of those idiots that goes to the ER because of a cold or stomach bug. I put the savings into the bank to use in the event of a rainy day. I am a capitalist not a socialist.

Short-term, probably not a bad plan. Long-term, hope your rainy day fund runs into the hundreds of thousands, just in case.

Best of health to you.

Da_Runner wrote:

Oh and I get all my meds for pennies on the dollar in Mexico.

Great plan for buying pills with no active ingredients in them.

I'm a third year pharmacy student now in AZ and right now I can tell you a grad can start at $130,000 at CVS (a 4th year just signed a contract). As to why pharmacists make so much, I don't know. It's the value placed on them by society. I'm certainly thankful pay is so high because when I graduate I'll have over 100k in loans to pay back. I guess the truth is we are literally the last checkpoint before society gets their meds. If you want a computer handing out meds, that's fine. But try asking a computer what OTC products interact your HTN med or your warfarin. I guarantee you'll get a load of theoretical DDIs that have no clinical significance. Study after study has shown pharmacists are better at managing chronic diseases than physicians, due in part to our intimate knowledge of drugs. We can keep costs down, improve adherence and increase QOL for our patients.

bm311x wrote:

Study after study has shown pharmacists are better at managing chronic diseases than physicians, due in part to our intimate knowledge of drugs.

Pharmacists in the UK do not manage chronic diseases, so this is interesting to me.

How would you define managing? Can you prescribe? Do you do the investigations yourself, certainly you don't diagnose?

The glory days wrote:

If they have a bad day, you die. or another way to think of it, they are drug dealers...

Really though they Make sure you medication is right for you. Doctors make mistakes. I don't want some kid in high school doing that job. And with all the money these drug companies make spread the wealth. I'm sure MLB guys who mow the lawn get paid more than the high school kid down the street too.

Pretty much this. They don't make a ton, but they make a decent amount, and they probably should. Pharmacists are basically physiologists (not exactly the easiest subject to study), generally study for 6 years in college, and are partially responsible for the health of people. In sue-happy times like today, it's important that they know what they're doing.

They also make quite a bit of money because of all the drugs people take. If people wouldn't want to pop pills for every problem they ever have, there would be a lot less demand for pharmacists. Instead I think more and more people are taking more and more drugs as more drugs are being developed. Like one woman I know, they'd rather just take blood-pressure medication than change their diet in any way.

Somas wrote:

bm311x wrote:

Study after study has shown pharmacists are better at managing chronic diseases than physicians, due in part to our intimate knowledge of drugs.

Pharmacists in the UK do not manage chronic diseases, so this is interesting to me.

How would you define managing? Can you prescribe? Do you do the investigations yourself, certainly you don't diagnose?

Since there are numerous ways to answer your questions, I'll go with one I am familiar with. Through collaborative practice, the pharmacist has the ability to change drugs, dosing, intervals, etc. This is particularly helpful in DM as insulin needs can change drastically, based on pt's eating, injection schedule etc. WIth the most common diagnoses (HTN, DM, hyperlipidemia, HF), it's certainly easy enough to diagnose someone with proper lab values and test results, although it's not done because this is not the point of our training.

It is my opinion that physicians should diagnose and pharmacists should prescribe. It just makes sense based on how we are trained through school. At the very least, add a diagnosis field that the clinician can fill out on every rx so the pharmacist can make sure the prescribed drug is the best possible choice for the pt's condition. I'm sure this will set off a few docs and I'd like to hear their responses.

RE MBA wrote:

Pay should be based on the value of the product, not the expense/difficulty of the training.

chinocochino wrote:

Ok, go get your healthcare from people with less schooling and we'll see what outcomes you get.

Schooling is an input. I want my healthcare providers to be educated so that they can produce a product that I value. I'm not paying them a lot because they spent a lot of time in school. I am paying them a lot because they produce something that I value. Their time in school has provided them with the skills to create something that I value and thus be paid for their work, but that is their affair, not mine.

I'm not necessarily saying that I think pharmacists should not make the money they make. I'm simply disagreeing with the idea that they should be paid a lot because they spent a lot of time in school. They should be paid a lot if the value of their work justifies it. And if the value of the work justifies high pay, then people will be willing to go to school to learn the profession because the schooling provides the training necessary to create the product.

By your logic that people should be paid a lot simply because what they do is "not easy stuff," a guy who spends all day digging a hole in the ground out in the woods for no reason should be paid well. Manual digging is hard work. But we pay people to provide value, not to do hard work. The input of work is only meaningful if the end result is a valuable product.

You might be right in some places. But, here in Pittsburgh, the U. of Pittsburgh and Duquesne University have programs and almost all of their students enter after their second year of undergrad. Six years total for them.

chinocochino wrote:

Nope. Eight years post HS. Four years of college nad four years of pharmacy school. If you have a very good CV, you can cut off a year off college and apply early for pharmacy school but I personally only know one (maybe two) person that has done that. Eight years post HS is standard.

The actual job of being a commercial pilot, nurse, air traffic controller, energy plant nuclear specialist and retail pharmacists, etc. are relatively mundane to straight forward in terms of their day-to-day job activities, relative to their education. But they are paid relative well for their smarts, discipline and ability to make the right decision over and over again. I know a little bit about all of the fields listed above and 99% of what they do might be routine, but one mishap can be catastrophic. If my cpa, makes a mistake on my taxes, I can live with that, by if a retail pharmacists makes a mistake on my prescription…I can’t live with that. (I am not speaking figuratively!) Btw, corporate CEO making a couple hundred grand a year probably make only half dozen major decisions a year. Also, the average school teacher or accountant makes about $50G a year and the fields listed above on average only make a little more than that. Btw, contrary to a few posts, the average retail pharmacists is not making 6 figures unless they live in CA, NY or have been in the field for many years.

From what I recall at Purdue, theirs was also a 6 year program.

I made 90K this year. I have no college degree. I basically reboot and troubleshoot servers in IT.

I think many computer jobs are over-valued as well.

Couldn't have put it better. I am surprised at the lack of intelligence displayed by many on this board in regard to what pharmacists actually do. My profession: I manage hospitals and healthcare facilities across Tennessee. I can tell you now that the pharmacists working at my outpatient and non-profit pharmacies bust their butts harder than anyone I've ever met. Their pharm-techs even harder, and rightfully so since they haven't went through the schooling their elders have.

Pharmacists don't just just dispense medications. They mix and measure suspensions and solutions. How would you like to overdose on a certain suspension or solution, or get too much codeine in your syrup and die because you had a high school educated individual mixing it? You probably wouldn't. Pharmacists are paid high dollar for a reason. They are a veritable book of knowledge on the medications they dispense and know which drugs can and can't be mized with others. This can mean your LIFE!

On another note I get paid a great deal more than them (around $250k and 300 after bonuses) and I am not even close to accountable for as many lives on a daily basis as they are. I handle executive work and make sure healthcare facilities run smoothly and remain profitable. My father, whom I admire, is much like a pharmacist in terms of responsibility as he is a pilot. Pilot's are grossly underpaid. The average pilot is making 120-30k a year. They work long hours under high stress environments. New pilots are paid 1/4 of that and work just as much.

Most have lost their 401k's and retirement as a result of bankruptcy filings and reconsolidation. One flight is responsible for more lives being delivered safely than almost any profession in the world. How would you like an underpaid and overworked pilot flying you 2000k miles at 35k feet in the air? And people constantly sh*t on pilots as if it is their fault when a flight is late. Crew members want to be on time just as much as passengers. It's crazy the lack of respect people have in this day and age for positions such as pilots and pharmacists. I hope things start to turn around for these hard working individuals.

My wife is a retail pharm, she spends her day identifying fake scripts, catching doctor mistakes and then trying to track the doctor down, making compound drugs and giving vaccinations. All while asking crazy, impatient customer questions and trying to work with insurance companies. I thought she made a lot of money until I learned what she did. Now I know that pharmacists are worth every penny

Quit ranting on and on about pilots. Noone said anything about pilots.

Dont bother with all that school...get a Bachelors in anything involving computers...I started out at 60k at age 22, just managing computer systems...after a few years i made 80k...now I make 100k as a IT manager and im 30. My co-worker went to DeVry online college and makes 55k startng. If your skilled and know how to communicate business needs through computers, skys the limit.

By the time my best friend got out of pharmacy school(in which he had NO social life) i had already made 250K in those 4 years he spent in school...add his student loans, and his starting salary of 90K, he has a long way to go to catch up. Go into IT/computers.