PSU to alter dispensary operations

A month after the Portland State health center decreased its operating hours because of illegal medication dispensing practices, the dispensary may be on its way to full operating hours.

The center for Student Health and Counseling (SHAC) dispensary could turn into a family planning clinic and a county health clinic, which would allow the registered nurses working in the pharmacy to legally hand out doctor-approved medication.

SHAC reduced the dispensary operating hours to two hours each day after Jan. 8, when health center administrators were informed that was against state law for registered nurses to hand out medications to students. Registered nurses at Portland State have handed out prescriptions for the entire time Collins has worked at the health center, or at least 25 years.

Mary Beth Collins, interim director for SHAC, met with officials from the state boards of Nursing and Pharmacy on Feb. 8 and came to the conclusion that the dispensary would have to be classified as a family planning clinic and county health clinic or hire a pharmacist to operate fully.

If SHAC becomes a family planning clinic and a county health clinic (PSU could qualify as both types of clinics), the dispensary could distribute a wider variety of medications and treatments for sexually transmitted diseases, other communicable diseases, birth control and emergency contraception. SHAC would not be able to dispense medications for psychiatric conditions.

“(Things are) going more slowly than we wished they would, but they are going,” Collins

said.

The application process to become a family planning clinic and county health clinic will still take a few months because, Collins said, the process has many steps.

The second option to legally distribute all types of medications, Collins said, would be to open up a pharmacy by hiring a pharmacist, an option that could raise current drug prices at SHAC by as much as double to cover the cost of operations. In the private sector, pharmacists make close to $130,000 per year ($140,000 with benefits), according to Collins.

To cover the cost of hiring a full-time pharmacist, SHAC would have to fill 80 prescriptions each day, Collins said. SHAC currently fills about 50, but that number has dropped to 25 per day during the two-hours-per-day operating hours.

Hiring a full time pharmacist could increase operating costs, but would allow the dispensary to distribute more medications. Collins said she plans to meet with Student Body President Courtney Morse to discuss student viewpoint on whether they would like more access to medications on campus or cheaper pharmacy operating costs with less medication access.

Higher costs might be an inevitability, Collins said, “if that’s what we need to do to get medicines in students’ hands so they can get well.”

Monique Petersen, communications director of ASPSU, said ASPSU is in favor of any option that would provide more access to health care for students. She said there have not been any formal complaints from students regarding prices or access to the SHAC.

“If this is a campaign that Associated Students of Portland State University (ASPSU) needs to take on, we would talk to students about it,” Petersen said. “We would be interested in listening to feedback.”

Petersen said students should not have to choose between increased access and low costs because PSU should take care of its students’ health needs.

“We feel like it’s the university’s responsibility to find alternate ways to fund the pharmacy so the health care fee doesn’t go up as much,” Petersen said. “[PSU is] tacking on more fees and stuff for us to pay for when they should be looking internally and externally [for ways] to make the burden easier.”

The clinic dispensary is currently only open for two hours a day, noon to 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. Until these issues are resolved, SHAC’s physicians will continue to hand out medications.

Collins said both boards indicated to her that they would not be looking into legal action against the nurses who were handing out the medications, SHAC or PSU in general. The state Board of Pharmacy, the only organization that could discipline the health center, would not comment on SHAC because the board is still investigating the SHAC dispensing practices.

Collins said the Board of Pharmacy and the Nursing Board both told her this sort of thing happens all the time and it is not their wish to close down pharmacies. Collins said SHAC’s situation is a “fairly innocent mistake.”

“They basically are trying to keep patients from getting hurt,” Collins said.

Becoming a county health clinic would allow distribution of communicable disease prevention and treatment medications. Becoming a family planning clinic would require SHAC to hire a consulting pharmacist and the revamping of certain protocols, such as how and where drugs are stored. Neither option would let SHAC dispense anti-depression medication or asthma medicine.