New round of pharmacy grants to boost patient care, residencies

Drug Store News, July 17, 2000 by James Frederick

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- Rounding out its first funding cycle, the Institute for the Advancement of Community Pharmacy announced two final series of grants aimed at building new patient-care models at community pharmacies, alleviating the nationwide shortage of pharmacists and improving the dispensing workplace. With its final allocations to be awarded this year, the two-year-old institute has dispersed a total of more than $6.4 million to more than 75 recipients.

The final awards for year 2000, announced last month, amount to more than $1.7 million. They follow closely on the heels of a $4.7 million outlay by the institute to support pharmacy schools and boost school enrollments in coming years. "That will complete our first round of grants," said Laura Cranston, executive director of IACP. "We'll announce the second funding cycle in late September or October, and we'll call for all proposals [from prospective grant recipients] by the end of December."

Institute co-chairmen Craig Fuller and Calvin Anthony expressed pleasure at the range of activities the awards will support. "We are pleased to provide significant support to a wide range of diverse proposals in this first funding cycle," said Fuller, who is president and chief executive of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores. "The institute looks forward to the outcomes of much of the research being funded, the projects being developed and the strategic alliances that our funding is helping to foster between schools and community pharmacies."

Anthony, who is executive vice president of the National Community Pharmacists Association, noted: "These grants get to the heart of the institute's mission of helping to advance community pharmacy. We believe these projects will serve as models upon which all community, pharmacies can draw to further improve their practices and better serve their patients."

The institute was founded in 1998 by NACDS and NCPA and is supported by a grant of $27.5 million over five years from Knoll Pharmaceutical Co.

Helping hand to residency programs

The final cycle includes nearly $900,000 in grants to be divvied up among 31 recipients to support community pharmacy residency programs and other retail pharmacy training initiatives. That money will help support a slew of new and ongoing patient-care programs at many of the nation's top national and regional drug chains, among other pharmacy outlets.

The grants are "intended to provide incentives for schools and community pharmacies to develop additional community residencies and to improve the quality and value of community residencies," according to Cranston.

That grant series, announced in mid-June, is aimed at building new platforms for pharmacy schools and chain and independent pharmacy retailers to collaborate in the training of community pharmacists through long-term residencies. Such residencies can also be a boon to chains' efforts to create and maintain patient-care models and disease management efforts, since many residents devote themselves to such programs.

"Increasing the number of community pharmacy residencies is an important part of improving the exposure students get to community pharmacy practice," said Fuller. "Residents go on to become clinical faculty and to be leaders in developing community-based pharmacy care services."

Among the specific programs supported by the $900,000 grant package:

* Walgreen Co. will team with Oakdell Pharmacy, a home health care and home infusion specialist, and the University of Texas at Austin College of Pharmacy to develop two new residency programs, with the aim of developing a Patient Care Center within an existing Walgreens pharmacy in Austin. Walgreens will also join with the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences to establish a community residency program at the chain's Patient Care Center in Chelsea, Mass.

* CVS, working with the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, will launch a residency that will include rotations through CVS headquarters, CVS's Procare division and CVS Health Connections, the chain's patientcare centers.

* Eckerd Corp., in conjunction with Texas Tech University School of Pharmacy, is receiving a two-year grant from the institute to fund two residencies. One will be based at an Eckerd Patient Care Center in Dallas; the second will focus on the administrative aspects of providing patient care, including the challenges of launching a practice and setting up programs to enable retail pharmacists to take on additional patient-care duties.

* Kerr Drug will expand its residency collaborations with a new partnership with the Medical University of South Carolina College of Pharmacy.

* Duane Reade, in tandem with Long Island University's Arnold and Marie Schwartz College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, will receive a multi-year grant for an Urban Community Pharmacy Residency Program in New York. Residencies will feature rotations among pharmacies, Duane Reade's headquarters, a pharmaceutical manufacturer and teaching experiences at the college.