The APhA meeting in San Diego was a great success with huge numbers of students (future pharmacists) from throughout the US meeting one another and becoming more aware of their terrific profession. On April 7th, I attended the American College of Clinical Pharmacy meeting in Phoenix—also a success in terms of numbers attending and quality of presentations. Later in April, the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy will meet in San Francisco and we look forward to attending that meeting also. We hope to see many of you and will report back in next month’s newsletter.

The February 2008 ADI survey is attached. Thanks for sending your reports in by February 20 this month. For panelists who use the Web to report, the Website log-in is http://wsprod.westernu.edu/pharm/adi/login.jsp. FAX and email options continue to be available (kknapp@touro.edu or srobles@westernu.edu). The survey form (attached) includes information for FAX transmittal. My office FAX is 707.628.5266. Susan Robles will send reminders after the 17th. Susan’s office phone number is 909.469.5619. Please feel free to call me (707.638.5221) or email me. Your timely responses are much appreciated.

February 2008 ADI Summary. The ADI for February 2008 was 4.07, the same as last month. The last three months, the ADI has been virtually the same. One year ago, the ADI was at 4.13—which is considerably higher. This month the year-over-year gap is larger than we’ve recently experienced. The relative constancy of the ADI over the last three months suggests a stabilization of the unmet demand for pharmacists. For February, we saw 2 states at the highest level of shortage or unmet demand, which is “5”— North Carolina and California. Kentucky was close behind at 4.50. There were 44 states at the “4” level (some difficulty filling open positions), up from last month’s 42. There were 5 states at the “3” level (balance between supply and demand): Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Nebraska, Montana, and Delaware. There were no states at the “2” level or “1” level (demand is less or much less than the pharmacist supply available). Overall, 97.2% of the U.S. population was residing in states where filling open positions was at least moderately difficult in February 2008— up from 96.6% last month.

Regional and Divisional Demand Indices. Regional demand showed the West at the highest level of unmet demand at 4.26, up from 4.23 last month. Next was the South at 4.16, also up from 4.10 last month and reversing a recent downward trend. The Northeast was next at 3.89, down from 3.99 last month. The Midwest had the lowest level of unmet demand at 3.87, down from 3.94 last month. The substantial gap which we have been observing between the West/South and the Midwest/Northeast was again apparent this month and the spread between the two groups increased.
The division with the highest unmet demand this month was the Pacific (CA, AK, WA, OR and HI) at 4.43, the same as last month and continuing a high level of unmet demand for this division. Next was the East South Central (AL, KY, MS, TN), at 4.17, down from 4.19 last month and continuing a downward trend. The West North Central division (IA, KS, MN, MO and NE) had the lowest level of unmet demand at 3.71, down from 3.79 last month. The Mountain division (AZ, CO, ID, MT, NV, NM, UT, WY). was next lowest at 3.87, up from 3.76 last month. Values for all regions and divisions are on the ADI Website, www.pharmacymanpower.com.

State Demand Indices. In February 2008, there were 2 states with a demand level rounding to "5= high demand”—North Carolina and California. Kentucky was next at 4.50. There were 44 states at the “4” level (some difficulty filling open positions) and 5 states at the “3” level (balance between supply and demand): Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Nebraska, Montana, Delaware. Last month there were 7 states at the “3” level. There were no states at the “2” level or “1” level (demand is less or much less than the pharmacist supply available). Read all individual state ratings on the state map at the ADI Website, www.pharmacymanpower.com.

Demand Indices by Population. Demand Indices by Population. In February 2008, 15.1% of the U.S. population lived in states at the "5" level—the same as last month. With 44 states in the “4” category this month, the percent population at the “4” level was at 82.1%, up from 81.5% last month. Only 2.7% lived in states at the "3" level—down from 3.3% last month. 0% lived in states at the “2”, and 0% at the "1" level. Overall, in February 2008, 97.2% of the U.S. population was residing in states where filling open positions was at least moderately difficult.

Demand Indices by Practice Setting. TThis month's community pharmacy demand index was 3.78, up slightly from 3.74 last month. The demand for institutional pharmacist positions went way down to 3.54 from 4.35 last month strongly altering the recent finding that institutional positions were harder to fill than community positions. We’ll be watching this report next month. Integrated health systems with both institutional and community positions, which generally experience higher demand, were at 4.36, up strongly from 4.04 last month.

We wish you a great March. Thank you for your continued participation and interest in the Aggregate Demand Index project.
Katherine Knapp

Katherine K. Knapp, PhD
Professor and Dean
College of Pharmacy, Touro University - California
1310 Johnson Lane, Mare Island
Vallejo, CA 94592
Phone: 707.638.5221; FAX: 707.638.5266
Email: kknapp@touro.edu or kkknapp@msn.com