Contact: Robyn Zimmerman, GHs
864.455.1422
Ellen Bank, MUSC
843.792.2626
Russ McKinney, USC
803.777.1234
Jan. 12, 2005
GREENVILLE - - In a joint announcement at Greenville
Hospital System today, USC president Dr. Andrew Sorensen and MUSC president
Dr. Ray Greenberg announced that the South Carolina College of Pharmacy is adding
a new location, the Greenville Hospital System. Although the integration of
the University of South Carolina (USC) and the Medical University of South Carolina
(MUSC) pharmacy programs is still in progress, the program is already expanding
beyond Columbia and Charleston.
To support the expansion, the Greenville Hospital System Endowment will invest
$5 million in the South Carolina College of Pharmacy over the next 10 years.
The money will be used to hire additional faculty and secure other necessary
resources. The gift is seen as a multi-purpose investment: supporting the expansion
of the state’s pharmacy program, increasing educational and job opportunities
in the Upstate, and enhancing the intellectual infrastructure of the state of
South Carolina.
“The important institutional and geographic addition of Greenville makes
the South Carolina College of Pharmacy a true statewide program. As such, it
will increase access among those interested in a well-paying career in the pharmaceutical
industry to the exceptional faculty, facilities, and institutional activities
afforded by MUSC; USC; and our clinical partners, the Greenville Hospital System
and Palmetto Health,” Sorensen said. “The Greenville Hospital System
gives us a much-needed venue for clinical training, which in turn provides us
with the capacity and the flexibility needed to train the pharmacists our state
needs now and will need in the years to come.”
Commenting on the announcement, Greenville Hospital System chief executive officer
Frank Pinckney attributed the addition of the College of Pharmacy to the system’s
other academic programs to Health Sciences South Carolina, a public-private
collaborative partnership between MUSC, USC, the Greenville Hospital System,
and Palmetto Health. He also credited the system’s recent recognition
as a University Medical Center as a factor in attracting the College of Pharmacy
to GHS. “Our association with Health Sciences South Carolina continues
to provide exciting new ways to advance health sciences education, research,
and improved public health in the Upstate. It is unique and also very powerful
that we are using the existing infrastructure of our state’s colleges
and universities and its health systems to transform South Carolina’s
economy.”
The expansion of the combined MUSC/USC pharmacy program in the Upstate is critical
for several reasons, says USC’s Sorensen. Prescription drug use is at
an all time high—an estimated three billion prescriptions will be written
in 2005, and with the aging of baby boomers, demand is expected to surge. There
is a national shortage of pharmacists. Currently one in five hospital pharmacist
jobs is unfilled and six percent of retail pharmacy positions are unfilled.
Growing prescription drug use combined with a lack of pharmacists to fill them
has created demand for pharmacy programs with the appropriate faculty, facilities,
and resources to train pharmacists to safely dispense medications.
While a specific date has not been set for the Greenville Hospital System to
begin training pharmacy students, Greenberg said the South Carolina College
of Pharmacy is targeting the fall of 2006 for its first class of 150 students.
“The process of integrating the two programs will take several years.
Right now we are focused on completing the paperwork and addressing the very
real tasks of establishing a single curriculum, admissions process and calendar.
However, we are taking advantage of every opportunity to create a leading pharmacy
program. The addition of the Greenville Hospital System as a clinical training
site is one such opportunity,” Greenberg said.
During the pharmacy school announcement, Dr. Greenberg introduced Joseph T.
DiPiro, Pharm. D., whose hiring as executive dean of the South Carolina College
of Pharmacy was approved by the MUSC and USC Boards of Trustees in December.
Dr. DiPiro currently holds the position of assistant dean for both the University
of Georgia College of Pharmacy in Athens and the Medical College of Georgia
in Augusta. A nationally recognized expert in pharmacy education, Dr. DiPiro
will assume his new role in South Carolina in May.
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