Pharmacy in jobs, news, schools » schools

Pharmacy school bars covering of the face

admin — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 09:55:51 +0000

The Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences has banned students, faculty, and staff from covering their faces on its three campuses in an effort to ensure public safety, a college spokesman said yesterday.

But the new policy has drawn flak from a Muslim civil rights and advocacy group, which wants the school to exempt Muslim women who veil their faces for religious reasons.

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“It’s a very strange policy,’’ said Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations. “I don’t know where it came from. The only thing we can conclude is that it’s designed to specifically target Muslims.’’

Sarah Wunsch, staff attorney at the ACLU of Massachusetts, called the policy “puzzling and possibly illegal.’’

Michael Ratty, a spokesman for the college, which has campuses in Boston, Worcester, and Manchester, N.H., said the rule was imposed after a “periodic assessment of public safety policies’’ at the private college.

“It’s no surprise that college safety has become a huge issue of importance in the past couple of years. This is another measure that public safety [officials at the college] wanted to implement to keep the campus safer,’’ Ratty said of the policy, which went into effect Jan. 1.

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The ban applies to anything that covers the entire face. In addition to veils, that could include ski masks and scarfs drawn over the face, he said.

Ratty said college public safety officials want to be able to identify people who are in college buildings. He also said development of the policy had no connection to the arrest last year of a 2008 graduate of the school, Tarek Mehanna, on terrorism charges.

“Unequivocally, it has nothing to do with that case,’’ he said.

Ratty said that the college found two students who would be affected by the rule and that officials met with them and both agreed to comply with it. “We have faith that [the policy] is appropriate,’’ he said.

But Hooper said he had not heard of such a policy adopted at any other American school. And he argued that because the policy includes a medical exemption, it should also include a religious exemption.

“People should have the right to practice their faith as they see fit, not as others see fit,’’ he said.

Founded in 1823, the college says it has prepared more men and women for professional careers in pharmacy than any other academic institution in the world. It has 4,300 students in pharmacy and a variety of other health care programs.

Pharmacy school bars covering of the face is a post from: Pharmacy in jobs, news, schools

School talks & market turnovers among top Provincetown stories in 2009

admin — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 08:21:47 +0000

PROVINCETOWN – The top stories of 2009 in this town are easy to identify: the July 4th sewer failure, mass resignations at Outer Cape Health Services, the town’s first hate crime in seven years, the deaths of several well-known and beloved residents.

But there were dozens of other events both big and small that helped weave the local fabric of 2009. Gov. Deval Patrick spent a day here visiting with business, government and arts representatives. The Provincetown Cemetery filled up, leading to a discussion on how to expand the burial grounds. A new ladder truck was delivered, replacing the one destroyed in an accident last year. The Bradford pear trees that line the sidewalk to Town Hall were saved. And off-leash beach rights were restored to dog owners.

Here is a look at some of the stories that had a significant impact on life in Provincetown over the past year.

Reworking a school system
After years of avoiding the subject, town residents and a new school superintendent convinced the school committee to directly address restructuring the school district. As the student population continued to decrease, residents overwhelmingly voted at the April Annual Town Meeting to establish a regional school district planning committee to explore the possibility of merging Provincetown’s schools with the Nauset Regional School District. The three-person committee’s report is supposed to be presented at the 2009 ATM.
However, it took until Oct. 13 for the committee to hold its first meeting, a delay that concerned both selectmen and Town Moderator Irene Rabinowitz, who appointed the committee. As a result, selectmen voted unanimously in July to send a letter to the school committee urging action. Since then, school committee chair Peter Grosso stepped forward to be the district’s representative on the committee and two residents, Alex Brown and Barbara Rushmore, volunteered to serve.

Shortly after that, in November, the new school superintendent, Dr. Beth Singer, proposed that the school committee hold its own talks about the future of the school district. After a lengthy and often emotional discussion, committee members agreed to organize a series of workshops open to the public that begin planning for the future of a different school district.

In tourism
The 2009 tourism season in Provincetown was a mixed bag but there were some sighs of relief that it wasn’t worse in this uncertain economy.
Booking rates for vacation rental homes on Cape Cod and the Islands were down 5.7 percent over the 2008 season, according to WeNeedaVacation.com, an Internet vacation booking site. A cold and wet June and half of July discouraged visitors but great weather through the rest of the summer and into the fall helped increase those numbers.

Still, the tourists who did arrive kept a strong grip on their wallets, cutting back on shopping across the board from artwork to fudge, based on reports from several local business owners, And many visitors who normally would have booked a week’s stay in town reduced that to four or five nights; there were often last-minute weekend vacancies available.

Retail stores reported revenue declines between 20 and 30 percent. But based on anecdotal evidence, it seems that the number of daytrippers was about even with last year. At the town’s municipal parking lots, the number of drivers was almost flat compared with the same April through August period in 2008.

“The overall picture was not great,” Provincetown Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Candy Collins-Boden said, referring to visitor spending. “But Provincetown could have done worse.”

Town Hall restoration
The last phase of the $6.54 million repair and restoration of the 123-year-old building began on Aug. 25, after voters approved funding at both the April Annual Town Meeting and the June Special Town Meeting. Phase 2, which will renovate and restore the interior of the historic building, as well as replace outdated electrical and heating systems, will take approximately one and a half years to complete.

Park project
Ambitious planning on the part of town leaders ran into resistance from some residents over a proposal to turn the municipal parking lot into a waterfront park, transportation gateway and visitors center. As part of that proposal, public parking would be moved to a proposed parking structure to be built on the site of the Duarte’s parking lot at the corner of Bradford and Standish streets. The idea of adding a 700-car, multi-level parking facility on the Duarte’s property — assuming the town was successful in purchasing it — worried some residents but selectmen said no design would be finalized without a series of public forums. In the meantime, the town is waiting to hear if its application for $25 million in federal stimulus money to pay for the project will be approved, a decision that is expected in February.

As the market turns
Although the takeover of the former Grand Union grocery store on Shank Painter Road by Stop & Shop actually took place on Dec. 12, 2008, the impact of the renovation of the town’s only grocery store was fully felt in 2009. The produce was fresher, there were more items available and a new, expanded pharmacy was built this past year. There were some complaints that it was taking longer to fill drug prescriptions over the summer months, however, prompting selectmen to write a letter of concern to the new managers.

Pharmacy no more
The reason there was a crush at the Stop & Shop pharmacy was largely due to the new market buying the prescription business of long-time Adams Pharmacy, which took the word “pharmacy” off of its sign. Adams, in business in Provincetown since 1875, sold that part of its business to Stop & Shop in March.

Art barn
Another change in a long-time fixture in Provincetown was the sale of the barn that housed the legendary Hawthorne School of Art and gave birth to Provincetown’s reputation as an international art colony. It was sold by its long-time owner Olga Opsahl-Gee, who with her late husband, Peter Gee, operated the art school since 1994. The new owner, Joshua Prager, has not revealed what he plans to do with the barn, although he said he would use it as a residence part of the year and have arts programming there the rest of the time.

Pru Sowers can be reached at psowers@provincetownbanner.com

School talks & market turnovers among top Provincetown stories in 2009 is a post from: Pharmacy in jobs, news, schools

Can UNCG and UNC-CH meet in middle on pharmacy schools? by Allen Johnson

admin — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:38:53 +0000

When asked about UNCG’s hopes to establish a new pharmacy school by 2011, UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Holden Thorp, a smart and impressive man, gingerly tip-toed through an answer.

“It’s not my decision,” Thorp said in a meeting with News & Record editorial writers last March.

Thorp said he would be happy to help UNCG gather information toward its goal.

“The question whether UNCG is the right place for a second school of pharmacy and whether the state needs one — those are things that need to be decided by President Bowles and Chancellor Brady,” he said later, referring to UNCG leader Linda Brady and UNC system President Erskine Bowles.

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What that precisely meant was unclear. But it did not appear to be a ringing endorsement.

When pressed about opinions on his campus, Thorp was equally nimble, if uninformative. “Well, you know universities are places where there are lots of opinions,” he said. “There is certainly some skepticism about it but there are some other people who think it makes sense.”

In any event, he said, it wasn’t their decision to make, either.

(He was a lot more forthcoming about Tar Heel basketball.)

But being opposed to a new pharmacy school “isn’t part of the UNC culture,” Thorp said, reassuringly.

That was then.

That was before UNC-CH began pursuing its own plans for a satellite pharmacy school at UNC-Asheville. This would not be a full-fledged school like the one envisioned for Greensboro, where as many as 100 students would enroll. But it would involve up to 40 students and would compete for funding at a time when state money is hard to come by.

As of now, there are three schools of pharmacy in North Carolina: the lone public one in Chapel Hill and private ones at Campbell and Wingate universities.

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A major premise in its long-range plans to establish a school, say UNCG officials, is the acute shortage of pharmacists in the state. Their proposal cites a 2008 report by the Pharmacy Manpower Project that ranked North Carolina and Wisconsin as the two states with the most serious shortages of pharmacists.

Some UNC-CH officials counter that the shortage isn’t as great now as it was thought to be before because of the recession.

Why then, the need for another program in Asheville?

And recessions do eventually end. The pharmacy school is a much longer-term proposition.

UNC-CH’s timing also is, well, suspicious. UNCG’s plan has been on the table for months. The Chapel Hill plan was either a well-kept secret or a late development.

Brady said Thursday that she learned of the Chapel Hill proposal at the end of September. “My sense is it had not been in the works very long,” she said.

There may be no calling dibs in these matters, but shouldn’t Chapel Hill at least have touched bases with UNCG as a professional courtesy?

“People have different approaches,” Brady said.

Even so, she added, “I personally don’t view the Chapel Hill concept as a competitor. It’s very different from what we’re proposing here.”

UNCG would offer the professional-level and graduate degrees, including doctorates, and include a significant research component.

She said UNCG’s provost, David Perrin, interim UNC-CH vice chancellor and provost Bruce Carney and the UNC system’s vice president for academic affairs, Alan Mabe, will meet within the next two weeks to discuss the two proposals.

“I don’t think it’s helpful for us to be competitors,” she said. “Sometimes that’s the case, but it would be good for the two institutions to sit down and talk about the two plans and the state’s needs.”

No offense to Asheville, but the arguments for a school here are compelling: the economic impact; backing from the Moses Cone Health System and influential local foundations; the impact on downtown, if it should be built there; synergy in research with the N.C. A&T/UNCG Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering.

“Our argument is not only an educational argument,” Brady said. “It’s an economic development argument.”

The Asheville initiative definitely would cost considerably less up front. But UNCG expects a return of as much as $28 for every dollar invested, including between $5 million and $6 million a year in sponsored research and $6.5 million in annual tuition revenue.

For her part, UNCG’s Brady was clearly expecting statesmanship to trump turf concerns.

“The first chancellor to call me following my appointment here was Holden Thorp,” she said.

Can UNCG and UNC-CH meet in middle on pharmacy schools? by Allen Johnson is a post from: Pharmacy in jobs, news, schools

UB Unveils Ambitious Capital Expansion Plan

admin — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:33:58 +0000

BUFFALO, NY (WBFO) – UB has a new master plan that officials say will grow the university, benefit the region and make UB a 21st century model university. Officials unveiled the long-awaited comprehensive physical plan Tuesday night. It calls for more than five billion dollars worth of capital expansion and improvements across all three campuses over the next 20 to 30 years.”It is what is sometimes referred to as b-hag, a big hairy audacious goal,” said Robert Shibely, director of UB’s Urban Design and lead on the master plan project.

As evidence of that, Shibley had giant, impressive architectural renderings, scores of data, and even an inch and half thick bound hardcover book containing the finished product.

The plan took three years from inception to completion, a cadre of planners, input from thousands of people and $4.5 million dollars. And that was just to get it on paper. Now the real work begins.

But Shibley said for the first time, UB has a solid concept for future growth that does not leave campuses or buildings stranded.

One of the first priorities of the plan was to make sure each campus has its own academic mission. That will mean expansion and improvements on all three campuses and shifting some programs.

The north campus will retain the college of arts and sciences, engineering and management. The south campus will become home to the professional schools, including architecture, law, social work and education. And the downtown campus will complete UB’s biomedical corridor vision, with all health sciences located at the rapidly expanding campus.

That includes eventually relocating all health sciences from the south campus, including the dental and pharmacy schools. UB President John B. Simpson said they are prepared for opposition.

The medical and nursing schools would be the first to move downtown, followed quickly by public health and, many years later, dentistry and pharmacy. Once complete, the downtown campus is expected to house about 13,000 students, faculty and staff.

Expansion and population growth are also planned at the other two campuses. Shibley said the south campus will not be abandoned. He said the professional schools will make good neighbors, and the campus will get a new look with refurbished historic buildings and a more parklike setting.

The north campus would be enhanced to accommodate the largely undergraduate population. The spine could be widened and extended, connecting Ellicott around the lake.

But central to the plan also is tying all three campuses together.

Shibley said the best way to create a “spine” to do that is by extending metro rail. He said UB is actively working with the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority to push for extension of rail service that would link all three campuses before the NFTA extends service to the airport.

The tally for the twenty plus year build out at all three campuses is between five and six billion dollars. $2.9 billion of that would have to come from the state. Simpson said that is not as much of a reach as it seems.

“The plan is about capital expansion, which is one time funding, which the state of New York, generally, even in difficult times like last year, has been willing to come up with for investments in the future,” said Simpson. “And this kind of plan really is an investment in the university, and therefore, an investment in the region.”

Of course, Simpson said how fast the plan evolves will depend largely on passage of the UB 20-20 bill. The law, which would give UB greater financial flexibility, is currently stalled in the legislature.

Still, some work is already progressing, even without the bill. Shibley said cranes are in the air and the plan is moving forward. “It’s not a question of if it will get done, but when,” said Shibley.

UB officials said the master plan is closely linked with other plans for the region and demonstrates UB’s long range commitment to western new york.

UB Unveils Ambitious Capital Expansion Plan is a post from: Pharmacy in jobs, news, schools

Pre-pharmacy club prescribes success

admin — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:56:28 +0000

The Pre-Pharmacy Student Association, a networking tool for prospective pre-pharmacy students, has entered its third year of operation, Krysta Kadlitz, a senior from Chattanooga and association’s president, said.

“We give students valuable knowledge for the [Pharmacy College Admissions Test] dates and study tools, pharmacy school admission process and guidelines and friendship from peers pursing the same goals,” she said.

“We also take trips to local pharmacy schools to give students perspectives into what these schools are looking for in potential candidates…so they can better position themselves… to succeed,” Kadlitz said.

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The Pre-Pharmacy Student Association visited Lipscomb and Belmont Oct. 20, Lindsey Narramore, a junior from Dunlap, Ga. and secretary of the organization, said.

“We went to get a better feel for the admissions process of graduate school,” she said.

Kadlitz said the trip to Lipscomb and Belmont was great.

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“The faculty and staff were very welcoming. They went over the requirements for admission, the interviewing process, and welcomed any questions we had,” she said.

“At Lipscomb…they gave us an ‘inside scoop’ on what to expect in professional school and some tips on how to make ourselves look more competitive,” Narramore said. “Belmont is in the process of building a brand new pharmacy school, and they had a lot to say about the excitement of such an upcoming event.”

Kadlitz said, “We also had an opportunity to see students who previously attended UTC and are currently students at Lipscomb.”

During the school year, Pre-Pharmacy Student Association participates in canned food drives, coat drives and visits local nursing homes, according to Kadlitz.

According to Kadlitz, the organization has planned to work with the American Marketing Association and Sticky Fingers for a canned food drive to benefit the Chattanooga Area Food Bank.

Pre-Pharmacy Student Association is also fundraising and putting together a raffle, Narramore said.

“We plan on getting the entire campus involved,” she said.

Prizes for the raffle will include gas cards and gift cards with tickets selling for $1 per entry, Kadlitz said.

“The proceeds will go directly to the Pre-Pharmacy Student Association and may be used for a charitable donation next semester,” she said.

Kadlitz said the pharmacy and health care based professions are very rewarding.

“The pharmacy profession is dedicated to service to others,” she said. “You have to have a passion for the career and really care for others.”

Narramore said the organization has been a positive experience for her.

“I have met a lot of intelligent and inspired people,” Narramore

Aside from making friends, it gives me a lot of exposure to the pharmacy profession that I would not have necessarily had if I wasn’t involved with such a group of people.”

Narramore said trips to prospective pharmacy programs at other schools have been exciting and enriched her sense of the future and are useful to her planned career.

Narramore said. “I learned that the thought of graduate school isn’t so far-fetched anymore and I’m a lot less intimidated by the application process.”

Kadlitz said the UTC Pre-Pharmacy Student Association is available for anyone interested in joining.

“We are here for guidance and mentorship throughout the admission progress,” she said.

Pre-pharmacy club prescribes success is a post from: Pharmacy in jobs, news, schools

SIUE School of Pharmacy, SLU Pharmacology Receive $975K NIH Grant

admin — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:53:40 +0000

The Southern Illinois University Edwardsville School of Pharmacy has been awarded — along with the Saint Louis University Department of Pharmacology and Physiology — a $974,024 National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant to study ways of relieving chronic pain through new approaches in treating neuroinflammation.

Edwardsville, Ill. (Vocus/PRWEB ) November 3, 2009 — The Southern Illinois University Edwardsville School of Pharmacy has been awarded — along with the Saint Louis University Department of Pharmacology and Physiology — a $974,024 National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant to study ways of relieving chronic pain through new approaches in treating neuroinflammation.

Funding for the NIH grant was made possible in part by federal stimulus funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

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Professor Daniela Salvemini, an associate professor of pharmacological and physiological science at the SLU School of Medicine, and William Neumann, an assistant professor of medicinal chemistry in the SIUE School of Pharmacy, are the project’s principal researchers who will be studying how “peroxynitrite” (produced in the body in inflammatory settings) can actually cause chronic pain when the body produces too much of the chemical.

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According to the research abstract filed by Salvemini and Neumann, chronic pain is a global problem but in the United States alone one third of Americans suffer from it. However, about 30 percent of those chronic pain sufferers report that drugs now available on the market do not help the problem.

“When you have inflammation in the body,” Neumann explained, “reactive oxygen species and free radicals are produced, which can lead to formation of the neurotoxic molecule, peroxynitrite. Normally, these reactive molecules are kept under tight wraps by the body’s own antioxidant defense systems.

“But, if these systems become compromised, as in a state of chronic pain, it actually can make the problem worse. We’ll be looking at creating a synthetic enzyme that will go in and destroy the peroxynitrite.”

Over the past decade, Salvemini’s pioneering research led to the discovery of peroxynitrite. “We discovered the substance … which turns out to be very important in the development of pain and inflammation. If we target that molecule, we hope we can find new therapies with fewer side effects,” said Salvemini.

“Currently, pain is often poorly managed. Our hope is to find better ways to eliminate human suffering.”

The two-year grant is being administered through the NIH’s National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal And Skin Diseases. “By using various accepted lab methods, we will try to create in rats arthritic conditions and see how they react to the pharmacology we introduce,” Neumann said. “The broad potential therapeutic use of these new analgesic agents we’re proposing is not a part of current pain management drugs,” he said.

“Our team will draw upon previous breakthroughs in the development of free radical targeted therapies but we will go further in creating a new approach to combat the problem without some of the current side effects of current pain management drugs.”

William Neumann received a bachelor of science in Chemistry from the University of Missouri at Columbia in 1983 and a doctorate in 1987 from UM-St. Louis, where he worked on synthetic methodologies directed at preparing antitumor cyclopentanoid natural products. Since then, he has conducted research in both the diagnostic imaging and therapeutic pharmaceutical industries. Prior to joining the SIUE School of Pharmacy he spent the majority of his industrial career at Monsanto corporate research and later Pharmacia, leading the new synthetic methods group. He also is currently adjunct professor in the Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, Saint Louis University. Professor Neumann’s research interests are structure based drug discovery and catalytic antioxidants. At SIUE, he teaches Biochemistry and Integrated Pharmacotherapeutics: GI/Rheumatology/Pulmonary — Medicinal Chemistry.

Daniela Salvemini received her BSc in pharmacology in 1987 from King’s College London and her doctorate in pharmacology in 1990 at the William Harvey Research Institute, University College in London. After four years of post-doctoral fellowship, Salvemini joined the private sector where she spent more than a decade working on drug discovery and development of novel anti-inflammatories and analgesics. She came to Saint Louis University in 2005. Salvemini’s research achievements are reflected in numerous peer-reviewed publications, reviews and lectures in the field of pain and inflammation and several international awards including the prestigious Novartis Award in pharmacology.

As the only downstate Illinois pharmacy doctorate program, the SIUE School of Pharmacy addresses the growing need for well-trained pharmacists in a career field that is experiencing rapid and dramatic growth. The SIUE School of Pharmacy offers a quality pharmacy education that will prepare you for a successful career in health care. Earn a doctor of pharmacy degree from a fully accredited pharmacy school that serves as a model for new pharmacy education programs.

SIUE is a nationally recognized public university offering a broad choice of degrees and programs ranging from career-oriented fields of study to the essential, more traditional, liberal arts. SIUE offers the advantages of a small, liberal arts college with the low tuition rates of a state university. Our emphasis on undergraduate education, complemented by faculty research, creates practical applications for student learning. Located in the second most populated area of the state, this Illinois university draws students from all 102 Illinois counties, 42 states and 50 nations.

One of 12 Illinois colleges and universities, SIUE is located on 2,600 acres of rolling hills and woodlands in Edwardsville, just 25 miles from St. Louis, a major metropolitan area. Proximity to the St. Louis area enhances SIUE’s energy and vitality. The campus is easily accessed from several major interstates, while the city of Edwardsville offers ample opportunity for jobs, entertainment, shopping and fun.

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SIUE School of Pharmacy, SLU Pharmacology Receive $975K NIH Grant is a post from: Pharmacy in jobs, news, schools

Northeastern pharmacy school – schools of pharmacy

admin — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 21:36:28 +0000

UEI College – 4 campuses in California
Campus Locations: Ontario, San Bernardino, San Diego, Van Nuys
Certificate – Pharmacy Technician
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Campus Locations: Tampa, FL; Garden City, NY; New York, NY; White Plains, NY; Cleveland, OH; Dallas, TX; Houston, TX
Certificate & Diploma – Pharmacy Technician, Pharmacy Technology
Remington College
Campus Locations: Mobile, AL; Little Rock, AR; Colorado Springs, CO; Largo, FL; Tampa, FL; Baton Rouge, LA; Cleveland, OH; North Olmstead, OH; Memphis, TN; Garland, TX; Fort Worth, TX; Houston, TX
Diploma – Pharmacy Technician

The move will save a projected $2.25 million annually in the seven-county, 14,000-member public school consortium, said Larry Morgan, superintendent of Stark County Schools.

Morgan also is chairman of the Stark County Schools Council of Governments (SCSCG), a member of the larger Community Health Care Coalition that offers cooperative purchasing power.

That savings will help retain teaching jobs, he said recently.

Though the savings are not broken down by district, locally, the Stark County membership of 6,700, nearly half the consortium’s 14,000 members, would suggest that Stark’s savings — the dollars staying here — would be roughly half that figure, or $1.12 million.

But the dollars leaving Stark and its six other county consortium partners for the prescription plan and other changes will total in the millions.

That has local independent pharmacists concerned about the loss in business.

“We are having difficulty getting accurate numbers,” said Paul White, president of The Medicine Shoppe and Medicine Center. “But we do know this is millions of dollars.”

“With 18 school districts represented in Stark County alone, that would represent the largest pool of employees within the county. So moving their prescription business from the county would be devastating,” said Nancy Wharmby, certified public accountant and executive vice president and controller of The Medicine Shoppe and Medicine Center in Stark and Tuscarawas counties.

WHAT’S DIFFERENT?

The new plan administered by Caremark, a pharmacy-benefits manager headquartered in Woonsocket, R.I., and the previous plan’s provider, allows members to fill one original prescription and one refill at the local pharmacy of their choice.

After that, maintenance prescriptions — drugs for chronic, ongoing medical conditions — must be ordered via mail through a Caremark processing center in Texas.

That means thousands of refills won’t be purchased in local pharmacies.

“The city (of Canton) is pumping money into the city to try to save jobs,” said pharmacist Steve Fettman, owner of Davies Drugs. “The way I look at it, these people are working and paying taxes, and by doing it, they’re going to support schools. What the mail order basically does is take the refills away from independent pharmacies, and that’s their bread and butter.”

What has been overlooked, say Fettman and White, is the way independent pharmacies support the community.

“All of us help the schools, teachers, sometimes teams, cheerleaders with donations. And we don’t mind doing that kind of stuff for kids. We’re asked on Election Day to vote for bond issues. Our reward is we lose business,” White said.

“When was the last time a high-school kid asked Caremark for a donation for her team?”

Diane Miller, Ohio Education Association (OEA) labor relations consultant, doesn’t see it that way.

“It seems disingenuous to me that someone is criticizing the schools for sending jobs out of the area and to attempt to bring political pressure on the schools to say we’re sending jobs elsewhere,” she said.

“Our response would be, what we have done saves jobs. We haven’t sent jobs outside Stark County. We’re saving teachers’ jobs. Their (the independent pharmacists’) bottom line is the bottom line.”

The transition was not a snap decision.

Miller said voting by the various unions in the member districts and locals, as well as tabulating, took nearly a year. Amendments to the health-care package, she said, required a majority vote for ratification. Lacking that, she added, the existing health-care package would have remained unchanged.

“This is the process we go through to make changes,” said Tim Miller, also an OEA labor-relations consultant. “We bargained in good faith. We now have a legally binding contract.”

THE IMPACT

The change has left some union members confused or unsure about what they voted on.

Teacher Ralph Jentes, vice president of the Louisville Education Association, is vocal about his concerns. He questions the validity of Morgan’s claim that the decision saved teachers’ jobs.

“We wonder how he quantifies that, in light of the fact that the COG is a virtual monopoly. With COG, what they tell you is a good deal is what you accept, and all the superintendents fall right into line. The same is true with prescriptions,” Jentes said.

At North Canton City Schools, Superintendent Michael Gallina said he had received only one call from a constituent inquiring about the new plan.

“I had two points of contact, one with the constituent and another with a local pharmacist I spoke with at a Rotary meeting. I tried to get both of them back to Larry (Morgan), because he put it together,” Gallina said.

CITY COUNCIL’S OPTION

About 18 months ago, a similar proposal came before Canton City Council to move to a mail-away prescription program. Councilman-at-large Bill Smuckler said the independent pharmacists attended a council meeting, outlining the impact such a move would have on the local economy.

“Their argument was that we’re spending millions of dollars to create or retain business here for Stark, and we’re sending millions to Texas,” Smuckler recalled. “Part of it was that the local pharmacies, if they’re told to exist on emergency medication, they’re going to have a hard time making it. So the city gave employees the option. We have some people who are mailing away, and there are some, like me, who go to the local pharmacy.”

Smuckler said his personal decision to stop using mail-away prescriptions was made after he ran out of a medication during a business trip. He called the mail-order pharmacy and was told the refill was in the mail and it could not be reissued to another address.

“When I got to my destination, my wife called and said it arrived. I called them again, and they told me to have my wife overnight it to me. I actually got sick on that trip.”

Pharmacists say schools’ mail-order policy will hurt business is a post from: Pharmacy in jobs, news, schools

Districts focus on swine flu prevention as South Bay schools resume

admin — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 12:57:48 +0000

As South Bay students head back to school, they’ll encounter changes — larger classes, more vacation, fewer secretaries and janitors. But none is so immediately obvious, especially at the lower grades, as the war against germs.

From zero tolerance for fevers, to teaching kids to wash hands for the length of two rounds of “Happy Birthday,” educators are ramping up their fight against the swine flu this school year. The focus has shifted from closing entire schools to keeping ill kids at home.

At Empire Gardens elementary, school nurse Chantal Malebranche led a schoolwide assembly last week on how to do the Dracula cough: Swing around your arm (cape is optional) and cough or sneeze into the crook of your elbow.

Expect more ah-choo! practices as the rest of Santa Clara Valley public schools open this week.

Should any student walk into the health office, “we make sure they know how to cough properly,” Malebranche said. She’s instructed teachers to hold “coughing drills” to practice the technique.

The San Jose Unified School District has equipped her and other school nurses with spiffy new infrared thermometers. Simply point the instrument at a child’s forehead, and within seconds, up pops a temperature reading.

“If a child looks sick at all, we’re going to take their temperature,” said nurse Melinda Landau, who heads the district’s health services. She came up with the 20-second two-verse Happy Birthday, a directive she’s posting at all schools.Sending kids home

Besides more dispensers of hand sanitizer in more schools, classes in 2009-10 have a different look after schools wrung their budgets tightly to cut down spending, because of the state budget deficit. In San Jose Unified, elementary classes have 30 students. Franklin-McKinley School District in East San Jose eliminated two teaching days, for a weeklong Thanksgiving break. Throughout the valley, schools have fewer aides, more limited course options and less library time.

But schools have ramped up the battle against the H1N1 virus, the strain of swine flu that sickens the young more than the old. Primary graders are learning lessons the fastest. “The younger kids are great,” said John Porter, Franklin-McKinley superintendent. “I told a group of middle school kids last spring that I may send some kindergartners to train them.”

Educators face multiple challenges. Sometimes parents don’t want to keep children at home, for lack of child care. And not everyone knows when a child’s fever reaches 102 degrees Fahrenheit, the level of a flu symptom.

So San Jose Unified has on hand a store of thermometers, donated last spring by Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, to give to needy parents.

And sometimes, students refuse to miss school. Last spring a teacher sent a Leland High junior to the nurse’s office, but the student sneaked back to class to take a test, Landau said.

Likewise, in the Mountain View-Los Altos High School District, “our students want to be there” in class, Superintendent Barry Groves said.

Absent students can get assignments via the student portal to the district’s Web-based locker program, said Sharon Chrisman, assistant principal at Mountain View High.

Parents, too, are being targeted in the anti-flu campaign. “We tell parents to make sure they wash their hands before they prepare a meal and before they exit the bathroom,”

said Bonnie O’Hern, a Franklin-McKinley district nurse.Lesson packets

The Santa Clara County Public Health Department has issued guidelines for both educators and parents. Under the new protocol, the County Office of Education, not health authorities, will determine when a school will be closed because of swine flu.

Last spring, the county quickly closed five schools at the beginning of the swine flu pandemic. With the disease so far blamed for five deaths and 79 hospitalizations in the county, the battle plan now focuses on slowing transmission in schools and keeping sick children home.

Anticipating that some students may have prolonged absences, or even that a school may be closed, San Jose Unified is developing grade-specific lesson packets.

And the district will enforce the rule of students being fever-free, without medications, for 24 hours before returning to school. “If we sent you home Wednesday with a fever,” Landau said, “we won’t have you coming back on Thursday.”

Districts focus on swine flu prevention as South Bay schools resume is a post from: Pharmacy in jobs, news, schools