Becker’s asked pharmacy executives from hospitals and health systems across the U.S. to share 2026’s most pressing workforce challenges and their solutions.
The 16 executives featured in this article are all speaking at the Becker’s Healthcare Spring Chief Pharmacy Officer Summit, from April 15 – 16, 2026 at the Hyatt Regency Chicago.
To learn more about this event, click here.
If you would like to join as a speaker or a reviewer, contact Mariah Muhammad at mmuhammad@beckershealthcare.com or agendateam@beckershealthcare.com.
For more information on sponsorship opportunities or vendor access-only badges, contact Jessica Cole at jcole@beckershealthcare.com.
As part of an ongoing series, Becker’s is talking to healthcare leaders who will speak at our conference. The following are answers from our speakers at the event.
Question: What do you anticipate being the most pressing workforce challenge in 2026, and how are you preparing to address it?
Nilesh Desai. Chief Pharmacy Officer of Baptist Health (Louisville, Ky.): The roles of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians have expanded significantly in various sectors, including insurance, pharma, health systems, ambulatory care, and emerging fields like gene therapies, home infusion, and decentralized care models. Concurrently, we’ve been grappling with technician shortages for the past 15 years. Now, with an impending shortage of pharmacists and a decreasing pool of experienced professionals willing to work in high-acuity or high-volume settings, the situation is becoming grim.
This helps us prioritize the urgent need to leverage artificial intelligence and advanced technologies to address these challenges. At our health system, we are actively strategizing and working on these issues. Our leadership is committed to enhancing operational efficiencies to free up time, allowing us to reallocate resources to more pressing needs.
Jose Guzman Garcia, PharmD. Associate Chief Pharmacy Officer of Acute Care at UC Davis Health (Sacramento, Calif.): Pharmacist and pharmacy technician labor shortages will continue to be a significant workforce challenge in 2026 and beyond. This challenge comes at a time when we are also seeing the rapid evolution of technology, particularly AI, and the efficiencies it can bring to pharmacy workflows. Health systems must clearly understand which tasks are best managed by technology with human oversight, and which tasks should remain led by humans, perhaps with increased assistance from new technologies. Defining this distinction will be critical to ensuring the future pharmacy workforce is sufficiently robust and equipped with the skills and training necessary for success in the future pharmacy landscape.
Sunil Patel. Vice President of Pharmacy Ambulatory at Sentara Health (Norfolk, Va.): Sentara is charged with insourcing the entirety of the specialty pharmacy program from an outsourced managed service. This requires rapid hiring and training for a wide variety of roles, from ambulatory clinical pharmacists embedded in clinics to administrative personnel. We have been preparing for this quite some time. We have developed a robust recruitment campaign and training program. What has been critical at this stage is starting first with the existing internal assessment and evaluation of skillsets across the acute, ambulatory, and health plan divisions to actively retain and provide opportunities to team members. Recent closures and reduction in hours of local pharmacies have been a tailwind in our primary markets.
Derek Szesny, PharmD. Vice President of Pharmacy and Clinical Supply Utilization at ScionHealth (Louisville, Ky.): ScionHealth is a national health system operating 80 hospital campuses, including rural acute care hospitals with affiliated medical practices and long‑term acute care hospitals serving chronically critically ill patients. In 2026, our most significant pharmacy workforce challenge will be retention, as reimbursement pressures and inflationary headwinds converge with burnout and an increasingly competitive labor market.
We are addressing this by improving turnover data transparency, aligning pharmacy incentives with local market needs, and expanding development pathways for pharmacists, technicians and emerging leaders. This includes strengthening graduate pharmacist roles, clinical specialty training programs, and residency and rotation opportunities. These initiatives build on our ASHP-accredited PGY1 pharmacy residency at Kindred Hospital Westminster, a long-term acute care hospital, which has strong graduate retention. We also plan to expand similar programs within community hospitals, such as St. Francis Emory Healthcare and its open-heart surgery program, to develop and retain high-acuity clinical talent while leveraging existing GME and clinical service lines.
Matthew Posinski. Senior Vice President of System Clinical and Support Services at Essentia Health (Duluth, Minn.): In 2026 and beyond, I anticipate that the most pressing workforce challenges will be persistent staffing shortages in hard-to-fill clinical roles and entry level positions which will be compounded by workforce burnout and increasing demand for services. To address this, our health system is investing heavily in workforce development through strengthened partnerships with local and regional colleges and universities to build sustainable talent pipelines. We are expanding education to employment programs that create clear pathways for students to transition directly into high-need clinical positions. In addition, we are developing in-house training programs and fellowship opportunities for hard-to-fill roles such as surgical technologists, ensuring we can grow talent internally rather than relying solely on external recruitment. We are also thoughtfully combining complementary roles, such as cross-training team members to function in both radiology and laboratory settings, to help cover service gaps while promoting professional growth and retention. We are deploying technology including AI to assist with imaging services and other back of the house services, such as prior authorization and expanded use of remote monitoring and remote guidance capabilities for imaging services to extend the reach of specialized technicians. We are aligning workforce strategy, education, and technology, to create a more flexible, resilient staffing model that supports both patient care and employee development. The results of these efforts have led to improved retention rates in our radiology technician space. Our first-year turnover went from 43% in 2023 to 16.5% in 2026 and overall turnover is now at 8%.
Thomas Carey, PharmD. Senior Director of Pharmacy Services at UW Health, Northern Illinois (Rockford): Without question, the most pressing workforce challenge relates to our technician team. Technician jobs are at the center stage of a perfect storm of increased expectations, increased work demands, relatively flat market compensation adjustment, Walmart’s recent wage increases and competition from other industry opportunities including work-from-home options. Furthermore, uncertainty regarding the impact automation and technology will play adds even more concern. As a pharmacy leader, it’s imperative we continue pushing towards an autonomous operation while supporting our incredible technician staff. At UW Health in Northern Illinois, we’re taking a proactive approach through our pharmacy technician summer internship program. By reaching out to rising high school seniors, especially those who are not pursuing a traditional college path, we’re providing an opportunity they may not have otherwise considered.
Nicole Green. Director of Ambulatory Pharmacy at ThedaCare (Neenah, Wis.): From an Ambulatory Pharmacy perspective, we see a key opportunity across our clinical teams. From physicians and APCs to pharmacists in both patient-facing and supportive roles, there is an opportunity to create an environment where team members find their work meaningful and fulfilling. As in so many areas of healthcare, the pace moves very quickly. Our leaders have the chance to support our teams, helping them engage with patients and one another. One way we can do that is by ensuring all team members are working at the top of their license.
For pharmacists in particular, continued role advancement allows us to both strengthen collaboration across the healthcare team, and take a more direct role in driving patient outcomes. By understanding and addressing the realities our teams experience, leaders can help foster a culture that empowers clinicians, supports professional growth and enhances fulfillment across roles.
Jared Garcia, PharmD. Director of Inpatient Pharmacy Services at John Muir Health (Walnut Creek, Calif.): The most pressing pharmacy workforce challenge in 2026 is retention and development of highly qualified pharmacy technicians. Technicians are a critical component of health system pharmacy operations and the industry has known gaps in attracting, developing and retaining talented technicians, with many moving on to alternate healthcare professions. This has been recognized locally by the California Society of Health System Pharmacists and they have developed leadership work groups specifically to address this issue. In my own organization we are hard at work on creating a meaningful pharmacy technician career ladder to address this concern.
Maresa Glass, PharmD. Director of Pharmacy Patient Care Services at Tampa General Hospital (Fla.): Pharmacy’s most pressing workforce challenge in 2026 is not staffing shortages, but a widening leadership and talent gap. Increasing clinical and operational complexity, combined with a limited pipeline of pharmacists prepared for enterprise-level roles, is straining the profession’s ability to meet health system demands. As pharmacy responsibilities expand across medication safety, advanced clinical care, technology, revenue cycle performance, and infusion growth, the need for strategically prepared leaders is increasing.
Without deliberate investment in leadership development, pharmacy risks being positioned as a supporting function rather than a strategic driver at a time when its expertise is essential to system performance. Health systems must move beyond traditional development models and treat leadership readiness as a core workforce strategy.
Our health system is responding by strengthening succession planning, investing in targeted leadership development, and creating clearer pathways into operational, clinical, and enterprise roles. At the same time, we are elevating pharmacy’s role in system-level governance to ensure appropriate authority, resources, and alignment with organizational growth. Together, these efforts position pharmacy to meet future workforce demands while reinforcing our role in driving safety, quality, and long-term financial performance across the enterprise.
Sara Moran Smith, PharmD. PGY-2 Oncology Residency Program Director and Oncology Pharmacy Program Manager of Allina Health (Minneapolis): The most pressing workforce challenge in 2026 continues to be workforce burnout. Financial pressures that health systems are facing add pressure to our clinicians and staff to be more efficient. This can feel a lot like ‘do more with less’; however, it’s really targeting how we can all provide more value to our patients. Allina Health is addressing these pressures by evaluating and investing in AI opportunities that reduce administrative burden, improve scheduling efficiency, and retrieve pertinent data for clinicians quickly and accurately. Some advancements have included use of Evidently to summarize patient data, use of DAX copilot to assist with note writing for physicians during a patient visit, and AssistIQ to automate within the supply chain. Although we have not resolved our issues, we have partnered with Qventus AI Solution with an aim to continue advancements with AI to enhance patient care more efficiently.
Joe Davis, PharmD. Pharmacy Operations Manager of ECU Health (Greenville, N.C.): The most pressing workforce challenge I see for 2026 is a continued shortage of pharmacist and technician talent. While pharmacy school applications have seen a slight increase, enrollment remains low and the demand is outpacing the output. To combat this, we are working on establishing improved pipelines for local and regional pharmacy schools and technician programs, developing in-house internship programs that can prepare future applicants for a role in our health system.
Along with a steady candidate pipeline, we are investing in retention strategies to reduce turnover and improve morale. Organizations have a continued need to invest in career development pathways for their pharmacists and technicians to keep them engaged in their roles and promote longevity. Our focus has been on the implementation and reinvigoration of career ladders, focused leadership development training, and staff engagement in problem solving for day-to-day workflow challenges.
Siggi Raizada, PharmD. Director of Pharmacy at Community Health Systems (Franklin, Tenn.): From my personal experience, the biggest workforce challenge in 2026 will be preventing burnout while expectations continue to escalate. In my organization, pharmacy has taken on expanded responsibilities in 340B oversight, revenue cycle improvement, stewardship, and regulatory compliance without equivalent staffing growth. I’ve personally seen strong pharmacists stretched thin trying to balance daily operations with strategic initiatives. The pressure isn’t just workload — it’s the increasing complexity of what’s being asked of us.
To address this, I’ve focused on protecting my team’s time by clarifying priorities and eliminating non–value-added tasks. We are expanding technician roles and standardizing workflows so pharmacists can practice at the top of their license. I’m also intentionally mentoring emerging leaders so they feel supported and prepared for higher-level responsibilities. I believe transparency, flexibility, and meaningful development opportunities are key to retention. From my perspective, investing in people — not just positions — is how we will navigate the workforce challenges ahead.
Martin J. Torres, PharmD. Director of Pharmacy, Quality, Safety, Education, and Research at UC Irvine Health (Orange, Calif.): There are multiple workforce challenges in 2026 which will require leaders to have consistent vigilance in tracking. The speed of change continues to accelerate and will require exceptional communication to minimize anxiety, isolation and keep everyone aligned. This speaks more to the intangibles of leadership and presence in maintaining a healthy culture, although difficult to measure. Adding fiscal uncertainty with limited funds for additional manpower, education, travel and training seem ominous but can be successfully addressed through a laser sharp focus on priorities which will change throughout the year. The old refrain of ‘Let’s do more with less’ or ‘Just absorb and let’s see what happens’ can be demoralizing for our boots on the ground caregivers. As long as we keep patients and their safety our number one priority without being complacent, we can position our teams for success. There has never been a better time to have the privilege of being in healthcare leadership!
Mike Stepanovic, PharmD. Assistant Professor of Health-System Pharmacy Administration and Leadership at UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy (Chapel Hill, NC): The most pressing workforce challenge in 2026 will not only be addressing medication and general staffing shortages but addressing the continued leadership shortage and enhancing the leadership capacity in departments of pharmacy across the country. Improving the leadership shortage is paramount to help elevate departments of pharmacy, improve clinical and operational outcomes, and implement emerging technologies (e.g., AI, robotics, etc.) to ensure the best outcomes for our patients. In addition to solving the current leadership shortage, current leaders need to also focus on preparing and training the next generation of pharmacy leaders. Many health systems are adopting new digital tools faster than they are building the governance structures and operational expertise to manage them safely and effectively. At the same time, succession planning is no longer optional. We must intentionally develop future pharmacy administrators and leaders, whether they are students or current clinical pharmacists, through structured mentorship, targeted training programs, education programs designed for working professionals, and leadership pathways that prepare them to lead complex enterprises. Preparing for 2026 means investing in both technological fluency and leadership continuity so that innovation enhances patient care rather than outpaces our ability to manage it.
Naira Barsegyan, PharmD. Pharmacy Manager of Sharp Grossmont Hospital (La Mesa, Calif.): In 2026, our most pressing workforce challenge is meeting patient needs while maintaining fiscal responsibility. To address this, we are redesigning our staffing models to ensure we deliver meaningful, high‑value care. We continue to invest in career ladders, education, and professional growth to strengthen long‑term workforce quality as well as stability. At the same time, we are leveraging technology to reduce administrative burden, allowing clinicians to spend more time on direct patient care. Improving efficiency through workflow redesign and modernization remains central to this effort. We are also relying more heavily on data to identify patterns, gaps, and barriers. Together, these efforts ensure we can maintain a resilient, high‑performing workforce capable of meeting patient needs despite the ongoing financial pressures within healthcare.
Faisal Sahawneh, PharmD. Regional Manager of Pharmacy Infusion Services at Loyola University Medical Center (Ill.): The most pressing workforce challenge that I see across the industry is persistent understaffing due to multiple inter-connected factors. First, high staff voluntary turnover, over 40% for pharmacy technicians. Second, the high-interest rate environment of the past three or so years has put a lid on labor expansion to provide necessary redundancy. Third, a general lack of stable, specialized competence in the workforce (e.g. prior oncology training, chemotherapy IV compounding) that contributes to a cycle of hiring and training green pharmacists/technicians who depart for other opportunities shortly thereafter.
We at Loyola Medicine have been attempting to address these challenges on multiple levels: Frequent market adjustments to increase wages to remain competitive in the local market. For pharmacy technicians, implementing a new technician ladder to provide more avenues for career growth. The relief from such measures is not without limit, however. The ever increasing fixed and variable costs related to the provision of care remains a drag on the industry. It is a consistent reminder that unless we see meaningful disruption in how the industry organically operates and generates revenue, we will continue to experience the impacts of increasing costs (inflation) and staffing shortages.
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