Mike gullett
A very good neighbor: Pharmacist Brian Caswell (right), of Wolkar Drug in Baxter Springs, was there when resident Leonard Koehn needed him. As legislative chairman for the Kansas Pharmacists Association, Caswell lobbied for the state to allocate funding for KU’s new pharmacy facilities.
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new pharmacists to replace them. The situation is a growing concern both statewide and nationally. By the year 2020, there will be a shortage of 157,000 pharmacists in the United States. Adding to the concern is the fact that as Baby Boomers age, their prescription needs will increase. As a pharmacist, Caswell knows there are barely enough pharmacists to meet the need now. “We’re an industry already stretched to the max,” he said. “How are we going to respond to a future that is going to require even more medications?”
KU Endowment must raise at least $10 million for the new School of Pharmacy facilities in Lawrence and Wichita.
steve puppe
f you live in small-town Kansas, your local pharmacist can save your life. Leonard Koehn, of Baxter Springs, knows. Koehn, 66, suffers from lifethreatening conditions, including emphysema and a seizure disorder. He remembers phoning his pharmacist, Brian Caswell, at 2:30 a.m. after his camper trailer had caught fire and his medications had been destroyed. Caswell, pharmacy ’87, was ready to help. “Brian didn’t hesitate to fill my prescriptions right then and bring them to my house,” Koehn said. “You can’t get that kind of treatment just anywhere.” Residents of Baxter Springs, population 4,600, are fortunate. They have three pharmacies in town. But not all rural Kansans are so well served: 31 counties have only one pharmacy, and six have none. The problem is expected to grow as more owners of community pharmacies retire. Of 3,500 practicing pharmacists in Kansas, 1,300 are over the age of 50. Kansas ranks among the 10 states where it’s hardest to fill an open pharmacist position. When pharmacists retire, there must be
Room for more students Caswell’s question has come up again and again across the state. Leaders at the University of Kansas and at the state house in Topeka believe the way to make more pharmacists, including small-town pharmacists, is to make more room to educate them. To do that, KU plans to build new, up-to-date classroom and laboratory space for its School of Pharmacy, the only one in the state. The Kansas Legislature has put money forward for the project.
Malott Hall, the school’s current home, opened in 1954 on Mount Oread’s south slope.
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