Pharmacy organizations give nod to residency program at Walgreens

Drug Store News,  Sept 24, 2001  by James Frederick

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GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- A graduate-student pharmacy residency program at a Walgreen Co. drug store here is the first to gain full accreditation from the American Pharmaceutical Association and the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, according to the pharmacy school participating in the program.

The resident, Benjamin Buise, Pharm.D., is a 2001 graduate of the University of Florida School of Pharmacy. The university and Walgreens jointly launched the residency program for postgraduate students in July 1998. Buise divides his time between the Walgreens Community Care Center, which is housed at a Walgreens drug store on University Avenue in this city's southeast side, and the interdisciplinary Shands Eastside Community Practice center, where he assists in pharmacist-managed clinics and patient education.

The approval by the APhA and ASHSP marks a significant step forward for partnership efforts between retail pharmacies and schools, according to William Riffee, Ph.D., dean of Florida's College of Pharmacy. "Accreditation is a significant accomplishment and a first for a U.S. college of pharmacy residency based in a chain pharmacy," he said. "A residency in a chain pharmacy allows pharmacists to raise the level of care typically provided. We are the physicians' agents to help their patients get better faster and have a better quality of life."

The Gainesville store is one of about a dozen Walgreens pharmacies that house community care centers, said Dennis O'Dell, vice president of health services. In an interview last month, O'Dell called the patient care program at the centers an evolving process that involves a coordinated effort among health plans, pharmaceutical suppliers, pharmacy educators and Walgreens staff to establish a recognizable level of service and a standard for reimbursement. "We're working not only with the plans and the manufacturers, but also with some of the colleges of pharmacy, where they provide residents or shared faculty," he explained. "We're still trying to increase the level of involvement in those kinds of programs ... but we think there are some natural synergies there."

At the Gainesville Walgreens site, the resident checks patients' blood pressure, cholesterol and blood glucose levels and provides those patients with counseling on diet, exercise and medications. Results of the tests are sent to patients' physicians.

"We need to offer more services to patients beyond the traditional dispensing of medications," noted James Taylor, Pharm.D., a University of Florida assistant professor who co-directs the residency program. "This is Walgreens' vision of how their pharmacies will practice pharmacy in the future."

Added John Gans, Pharm.D. and executive vice president of APhA, "The community pharmacy resident is uniquely positioned to impact community practice through the development or enhancement of unique patient care services and the corresponding studies on the impact of these services."

"You can't just have a onetime type of promotion," O'Dell told Drug Store News. "It's going to take the involvement of all the parties--including the plans, the manufacturers that can see benefits in market share and product sales, and the patients, who have to believe it's of value."

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