Despite inconvenience, pharmacy change works

Nine months since the closing of the Student Health Pharmacy, Dr. Bill Purdy, executive director of Student Health, said that the Outpatient Pharmacy manager regularly reports that operations are “running smoothly.”

Prior to its closing, the pharmacy was located in the Student Health Center on West Campus and had been in operation for 40 years. Financial difficulties since 2005, however, forced administrators to shut down the pharmacy in December 2009. All prescriptions were transferred to the Outpatient Pharmacy in the Duke Hospital South Clinic. Purdy no longer directly oversees pharmacy services for students, but he wrote in an e-mail that he has heard few complaints since the pharmacy closed.

But some students have said they have noticed a longer wait and changes in the quality of service.

Dani Schocken, a junior and regular pharmacy customer, cited a loss of a “personal” care with the closing of the Student Health Pharmacy.

“While the changeover may have reduced costs and streamlined operations in the hospital, I feel that there has definitely been a level of inconvenience imposed on students,” Schoken said. “It goes back to the fact that pharmacists at the former Student Health Pharmacy had a personal touch to the way they worked with students. For example, pharmacists would take the time to teach students how and when to take the medicine and discuss side effects—you just don’t get that kind of attention here.”

The Outpatient Pharmacy administration did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Still, Purdy said transferring responsibility for student services to the Outpatient Pharmacy does have some advantages.

“The Outpatient Pharmacy has a much larger inventory plus a large selection of over-the-counter preparations for sale,” Purdy said. “The costs of medical care is something the entire country is dealing with. We are doing all we can to provide excellent medical care at a reasonable price.”