Title

"City" piece on the shortage of pharmacists in Portland. Many Rite Aids and oth

Authors

Sharon Bass

Source

Casco Bay Weekly

Date

7-18-2002

Pages

8-9

Abstract

"City" piece on the shortage of pharmacists in Portland. Many Rite Aids and other chain drugstores around the country are desperately recruiting new pharmacology graduates and paying them up to $100,000 a year. Joyce Willard, pharmacy development manager at Rite Aid headquarters in Harrisburg, Pa., said her company recently hired 13 pharmacists who just graduated from school to work in stores from Kittery to Augusta. And the CVS chain is having the same problems, cutting hours and on occasion closing the pharmacy because there are no pharmacists available. Chris Sampson, director of public relations for the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences in Boston, said a leading factor in the shortage was the switch from a 5-year academic program to become a pharmacist to six years, which became mandatory in 1999. As a consequence, there was a fraction of the number of pharmacists graduating in 2001 compared to the year before. Meanwhile, the number of prescriptions continues to rise as more pharmaceuticals are developed and people live longer and need more drugs.

Subjects

Pharmacists

https://digitalcommons.portlandlibrary.com/cbw_2002/29/

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