Official Newsjournal of the Illinois Council of Health-System Pharmacists
by Scott A. Meyers, Executive Vice President; Kathryn Schultz, ICHP Treasurer and Christopher Crank, ICHP Government Affairs Director
October is National Pharmacy Month. October 15-21, 2017 is National Hospital and Health-System Pharmacy Week and Tuesday, October 17th is National Pharmacy Technician Day! It’s a great time to celebrate!
Governor Rauner just signed HB3462, the two-year extension of the Pharmacy Practice Act which creates a new Collaborative Pharmaceutical Task Force that will shape the Practice Act for the future! So why not use Pharmacy Month and all of its festivities to show your legislators just what a hospital or health-system pharmacist does? It’s important to get to know them now before you really need to ask them for a favor. So it’s easy to reach out to them but just in case you think you can’t do it, we’re going to show you how you can! And after we do, we’re going to tell you why every one of you needs to make this effort this year and this month!
To find your legislators and set up a visit:
[Note: If you are reading this article online, skip directly to clicking on the hyperlink in step 3. If you are reading a hardcopy of KeePosted, start with step 1.]
Hopefully, that doesn’t sound too hard. So now, here’s why we need your help. The Collaborative Pharmaceutical Task Force will be appointed by the following legislative leaders and made up of representatives from the following organizations:
The Speaker of the House, Michael Madigan shall appoint:
The Illinois Retail Merchants Association Representative
The Chairman of the Task Force
The President of the Senate, John Cullerton shall appoint:
The Illinois Pharmacists Association Representative
A representative of a statewide organization representing unionized pharmacy employees
The Minority Leader of the House, Jim Durkin shall appoint:
The Illinois State Medical Society Representative
The Illinois Council of Health-System Pharmacists Representative
The Minority Leader of the Senate, Bill Brady shall appoint:
The Illinois Hospital Association Representative
A representative of a statewide association representing long-term care pharmacists.
In addition, the Secretary of the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, Bryan Schneider shall appoint the following non-voting members of the Task Force:
A representative of the University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Pharmacy
A clinical pharmacist with extensive study in pharmacy e-prescribing
A representative of the Department
You can see that the Task Force has a wide-ranging membership, and a broad scope of interests are represented. This means that health-system pharmacy will need to be heard not only at the Task Force table but with all of Illinois’ legislators as soon as deliberations begin. We encourage all of our members to take a look at Public Act 100-0497 and especially Section 85/4.5 The Collaborative Pharmaceutical Task Force, to see what is in store. But that section only describes what is statutorily mandated to be discussed by the Task Force. The entire Act will be open for discussion, and ICHP’s Government Affairs Division has been reviewing it in its entirety and have put together a variety of changes that would bring the Act up to today’s highest practice standards.
So our request to you each of you is to “Reach Out” to your State Senator and State Representative and show them what hospital and health-system pharmacists do every day. Show them where the Act limits your ability to practice at the top of your clinical ability. Show them that you want to help them make Illinois a healthier and safer State for all of its citizens and your patients! Pharmacy Month is a great time to reach out to your legislators!
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Officers and Board of Directors
ICHP Pharmacy Action Fund (PAC) Contributors
Chicago Area Pharmacy Directors Network Dinner
3rd Thursday of Odd Months
5:30pm
Executive Committee
Second Tuesday of each month at 7:00 p.m.
Educational Affairs
Third Tuesday of each month at 11:00 a.m.
Government Affairs
Third Monday of each month at 5:00 p.m.
Marketing Affairs
Third Tuesday of each month at 8:00 a.m.
Organizational Affairs
Fourth Thursday of each month at 12:00 p.m.
Professional Affairs
Fourth Thursday of each month at 2:00 p.m.
New Practitioner Network
Second Thursday of each month at 5:30 p.m.
Technology Committee
Second Friday of each month at 8:00 a.m.
Chicago Area Pharmacy Directors Network Dinner
Bi-monthly in odd numbered months with dates to be determined. Invitation only.