U.S. Rep. Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, speaks with Richard Lariviere, Kansas University provost and executive vice chancellor, Tuesday in Mallott Hall. Moran visited the KU School of Pharmacy, where he joined Dean Ken Audus and Lariviere on a tour of the facility. The KU officials briefed Moran on the shortage of pharmacists and KU's plans to expand the the pharmacy degree program.
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Right now, seven counties in Kansas don't have a pharmacy.
Last summer, that number was just two. The Kansas University School of Pharmacy has a plan to help end the shortage, and U.S. Rep. Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, visited the school Tuesday to find out what he could do to help make that plan a reality.
"If you decide it's appropriate," Moran told Pharmacy Dean Ken Audus and Provost Richard Lariviere, "I'd be happy to write letters to Kansas legislators."
Lariviere said that's exactly the kind of support he thinks would be beneficial for the university as it tries to build support for the project. Under the proposal, KU is seeking millions of state dollars to increase the number of students in its doctorate of pharmacy, or Pharm.D, program.
Moran's support would be important because his district encompasses many state legislative districts that produce some of KU's loudest critics.
Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, in her budget request announced Tuesday, endorsed funding for the school's expansion. Additionally, Lariviere told Moran that maintaining the prestige of the School of Pharmacy was important to the university's effort to secure designation as a National Cancer Institute.
The Pharm.D program accepts 105 students per year. Lariviere said the school received 440 perfectly qualified applicants last year who were turned away because admitting even one more student into the current program would endanger the program's accreditation.
"This space was really built for the (bachelor's) degree of the 1980s," Audus said. "We've tried to update it to the Pharm.D program of the 21st century, but there's only so much space."
When the school switched from a bachelor's to a doctoral degree - a change mandated by the accreditation process - the school increased the number of students it has at any one time. The three-year degree became a four-year process.
And when it comes to new classroom space, the only sources of funding are higher tuition or state dollars. Pharmacy students already pay one of the highest course fees for their degree, so they would seem not to be a viable source for more money.
That leaves state dollars.
"We talked to pharmacists in Wichita who are filling (hundreds of prescriptions) each day," Lariviere said. "One woman said she couldn't stand the strain - not of the work, but of the mistakes she was making."
Lariviere said overworked pharmacists are choosing to leave the profession.
Moran, who is co-chairman of the Congressional Pharmacy Caucus, worked as an assistant in a pharmacy growing up and said seeing his district lose pharmacies was worrying.
"I was very pleased to learn of KU's plans for expansion both here in Lawrence and in Wichita," he said.
Under the KU proposal, about 40 students would be admitted to a new Pharm.D program in Wichita starting in 2009. As many as 150 more slots would open in Lawrence after a new building for the School of Pharmacy is opened - assuming funding for both can be secured from the Legislature.
"The pharmacist is the first line of defense in health care, and we are losing that line in Kansas," Lariviere said.
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ericinoz (anonymous) says…
The lack of pharmacies in certain Kansas counties has very little to do with the shortage of Pharmacists. It does have everything to do with that because of low reimbursement rates from insurance companies and Medicare and Medicaid no Pharmacist in their right mind would open a pharmacy in these locations. The only pharmacy that will open in these locations would be a an Independent pharmacy. I own 2 such pharmacies in 2 northeast Kansas counties and I will probably have to close one if not both sometime this year because of this problem.
It really does a disservice to Pharmacists to say that if there are more Pharmacists out there that all these underserviced areas are going to have a Pharmacy. They won't. If the new government reimbursement plan based on the AMP (Average manufactures price), instead of the current system, is implemented this year you will see about 25-50% of current independent pharmacies in these areas close all over the country. If you want pharmacies in these areas reimburse these independent pharmacies properly for the invaluable service they provide to the people who live there!
KU_cynic (anonymous) says…
Agreed. Like much of higher education in Kansas, if we train them they'll still move away to Dallas, Chicago, Phoeniz, etc., where opportunities for young professionals are better than in remote Kansas communities.
The real story is, "If KU is turning away bright young Kansans who want to study pharmacy, then KU needs to re-prioritize to better serve such students." But KU is reluctant to admit this because across the board KU underinvests in higher cost but higher return academic programs (pharmacy, business, other professional schools) and overinvests in lower cost but lower return academic programs in the humanities. "Sorry, you didn't make the cut for pharmacy. How about a degree in sanskrit or art history instead?" What an insult to Kansas families.