Foust Pharmacy closure not driven by finances
The Central Michigan University Health Services pharmacy offers prescription filling for CMU students, faculty, and staff members. But on March 1, the pharmacy will close for good.
Located in Foust Hall, the pharmacy fills prescriptions an provides on-campus prescription delivery options, several over the counter items and the ability to charge the price of prescriptions that are not fully be covered under insurance directly to a student's account.
Director of Marketing and Communication for The College of Medicine Gabriel Santi said finances were not the determining factor in the closing of the pharmacy.
“The decision to close the pharmacy, however, was not driven by finances," Santi said. "Pharmacy services are not part of the core mission of the CMU College of Medicine."
The College of Medicine has created a pharmacy-related FAQ page in wake of the facility's closing. Similar to what Santi said, the FAQ lists the closing of the pharmacy as making "financial sense.'
"Today, there are nearly a dozen retail pharmacies in Mount Pleasant, offering patients a wide range of options for prescription fulfillment," states the FAQ. "As the on-campus pharmacy is subsidized by the university, eliminating this cost center makes prudent financial sense."
In the past year, the pharmacy has filled 20,251 prescriptions and served as many as 4,232 patients. While the number of patients served seems large, it is relatively tiny compared to the 19,549 on-campus students. Assuming each student were to only use the pharmacy once in their college career, only 21 percent of students would have accessed the services. This number does not account for the staff and faculty who can also utilize this service.
Grand Rapids sophomore Leesha Novak said she was upset that the pharmacy will be closing, as she uses the facility monthly.
“I just used the pharmacy last week. It is such a huge convenience factor that will be lost because of its closing,” Novak said.
Santi attributed the pharmacy’s closing to the vast amount of pharmacies in the area.
“When CMU’s on-campus pharmacy was expanded to faculty and staff in 2005, the number of pharmacies near campus was minimal," Santi said. "Today, there are nearly a dozen retail pharmacies in Mount Pleasant, offering patients a wide range of options for prescription fulfillment.”
Within the past few years, several pharmacies have opened their doors to consumers, including the CVS pharmacy on the edge of campus at the corner of East Preston Street and Mission Street, which is just down the street from CMU’s campus pharmacy.
With this pharmacy closing, students, staff and faculty members will need to begin taking their prescriptions to other local pharmacies to be filled. The pharmacy will be open until 5 p.m. on Feb. 29 for students, staff and faculty to use. Prescription delivery will still be available for use until the pharmacy closes.
The empty space left by the facility's closing will be used at the discretion of CMU, Santi said.
Santi said some off campus pharmacies provide delivery to campus at no additional charge. Patients can view a list of local pharmacies as well as transfer their prescriptions to another pharmacy online.
