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Official Newsjournal of the Illinois Council of Health-System Pharmacists

Board of Pharmacy Update
Highlights of the March 2020 Meeting

by Scott A. Meyers, Executive Vice President

The March 10th Board of Pharmacy Meeting was held at the James R. Thompson Center in downtown Chicago. These are the highlights of that meeting.

Announcements – The Board will lose two members, Past Chairman, Al Carter and current Vice Chair, Desi Kotis. Al will become the Executive Director of the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy this summer and Desi will be moving to California to take over the Chief Pharmacy Officer position at the University of California, San Francisco. We will miss both of them and look forward to working with their replacements. Board member Ryan McCann was elected by the Board to complete Desi’s term as Vice Chair.

NABP Update – Board members will be involved in the annual March Multi-State Pharmacy Jurisprudence Examination (MPJE) item writing workshop writing new questions for the Illinois portion of the exam. The Board will also be well represented at the NABP Annual Meeting in Baltimore in May, if it is held. Denise Scarpelli, current Board Chair, will be the Illinois delegate to the meeting and Ryan McCann, Board Vice Chair will serve as the alternate delegate.

Department Time – This time is normally provided to allow updates from the Department staff. Munaza Aman, General Counsel to the Board, announced that the rules relating to meal and rest break records are on hold as the Department will follow the discussion of the Collaborative Pharmaceutical Task Force on these issues for the next couple of months. Once revised recommendations come from the Task Force, the Department staff will move ahead with draft rules. Once published in the Illinois Register, the public will have 45 days to provide comments.

Legislative Review – The General Assembly has a variety of bills impacting pharmacy directly and indirectly before them this year. There are several positive bills and several negative impact bills too. A more complete description of those bills will appear in the Government Affairs Report. The Legislative Update was presented by ICHP Executive Vice President, Scott Meyers.

Audience Comments – There were several audience members present representing residency programs across the greater Chicago area. They expressed concern with the 12-hour shift length limit for residents. Many programs require 24-hour on call days and there is concern that the new limit will impact residency program accreditation, limiting the number of quality candidates applying for residency positions and eventually continuing to work in Illinois after completion. Department staff listened and agreed to explore this problem further. Staff did report that they had received letters of concern from the group and also ASHP and ICHP.

Next Meeting – The next meeting of the Board is scheduled for May 12th at 11:00 am at the Department’s Building in Springfield. This meeting is the only meeting to be held outside Chicago. Check the IDFPR Website www.idfpr.com for exact room location. These meetings are open to the public and pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and pharmacy students are encouraged to attend.