8A - The Michigan Daily - Monday, October 19, 1998
LOCAL/STATE
A2 clinic hosts
Elders
in
Kelley headlines symposium
0
anniversary celebration
ELDERS
Continued from Page 1A
her time as the head physician of the
United States.
"I did the very best that I could do, so
I felt very good about that," she said. "I
loved being your Surgeon General, and
I would do exactly the same thing."
The Packard Community Clinic
sponsored Saturday's event in cele-
bration of its 25th anniversary.
Elders' address kicked off a five-part
forum on health issues, said Leroy
Cappaert, the clinic's chair of the
board.
The Packard Community Clinic is a
non-profit care-giver that hosts health
care education programs to the Ann
Arbor community.
"We wanted to be able to give some-
thing back to the community for all they
have done for us," Cappaert said. "She's
a great way to kick it off."
By Jason Stoffer
Daily Staff Reporter
As HMOs continue to replace tradi-
tional health care plans, citizens and
members of the nation's medical com-
munity must confront a new spectrum
of quality care problems.
Experts from around the nation,
including Michigan Attorney General
Frank Kelley, gathered Friday and
Saturday at the Law School to discuss
the changing dynamics of the industry
as it approaches the next millennium.
Kelley, who is retiring this year after
serving 36 years as Michigan's attorney
general, has been a national leader on
prosecuting negligent health care
providers.
Kelley said his office has a moral
responsibility to ensure that citizens
receive proper medical treatment.
"People are concerned if their health
care provider is more interested in reap-
ing profits than in providing them with
the best possible care," he said.
Kelley said the most crucial issue in
Michigan health care today is when for-
profit corporations purchase hospitals
and nursing homes.
"Anonymous corporate (nursing
home) executives are making staffing
decisions based not on the interests of
the patients but their own interests,"
Kelley said.
Kelley cited cases of abuse such as a
patient being raped in a nursing home
while inspectors were present, death
from overfeeding through feeding tubes
and amputations that were necessitated
by bedsores.
"I have filed 71 charges of felonies
against three corporations" and against
individual executives, he said.
Kelley's office also has filed civil
cases to prevent for-profit health care
companies from purchasing Michigan's
charitable non-profit hospitals.
Kelley's keynote address kicked off
the symposium, but the crowd didn't
leave after his speech ended.
During the weekend conference,
audience members attended panel dis-
cussions, roundtables and a second
keynote address by Gail Warden, CEO
of Detroit's Henry Ford Health Care
Systems.
Symposium Co-Coordinator Brian
Denadio, a Law third-year student, said
the event was organized to facilitate dis-
cussion and to contribute to the body of
literature on health care reform.
"We're hoping to get three different
articles published" in the Journal of
Law Reform, said Denadio, the sympo-
sium editor of the University-based
journal.
He said publications on governmene
regulation of health care and other top-
ics have the potential to help shape pub-
lic policy. The Journal of Law Reform
"has been used by academics and has
been cited in briefs to the courts," he
said.
One of the most debated issues at the
seminar was how to ration health care,
Even with the advent of managed
care, health care has been a rising por-
tion of U.S. economic output and now
accounts for 14 percent of the U.1
gross national product.
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National Pharmacy Week opens doors
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By Asma Rafeeq
For the Daily
For students undecided about the
right field of study for them, this week
may be the perfect time to think about
pharmacy.
National Pharmacy Week began yes-
terday, and local pharmacists and
College of Pharmacy students are
spreading the word about their career
choice.
Pharmacy is "virtually recession-
proof," said Frank Ascione, Pharmacy
associate dean for academic affairs.
Shortage creates jobs
Currently, there is a shortage of phar-
macists in the nation and salaries for
recent pharmacy graduates can run
from $50,000 to $70,000, Ascione said.
Ascione said the profession's future
outlook is bright because of a trend
toward team-based health care. He said
a recent revolution in drug therapy has
brought a new crop of powerful and
expensive drugs onto the market, lead-
ing to the expansion of the a pharma-
cist's role.
"Traditionally, physicians have made
the decision about the appropriate use
of drugs," Ascione said. "But pharma-
cists have the overall expertise in the
area of prescriptions, and (physicians)
have realized that they can't do it
alone."
In some hospitals, pharmacists
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advise physicians on dosage schedules,
drug interactions and side effects.
"The reputation of pharmacists is
very positive," said Larr*
Wagenknecht, chief executive officer
of the Michigan Pharmacists
Association.
In a 1998 Gallup Poll of careers,
the pharmacy profession was ranked
first for honesty and high ethical stan-
dards.
But the expertise of pharmacists
often goes unnoticed, said
Wagenknecht, a University alumnus.
"When you think of pharmacists,
you basically think of someone countO
ing pills," Wagenknecht said. "Yet
pharmacists are the most available
untapped source of health care infor-
mat ion."
Local pharmacist Bob Van
Bemmelen said he finds "students (to
be) a lot more inquisitive than the gen-
eral public."
Van Bemmelen has worked at Village
Apothecary on South University
Avenue for 4 1/2 years.
"Younger people have unique needs,'
Van Bemmelen said. He said birth con-
trol pills, acne skin preparations and
anti-depressants are among the most
common types of medications filled at
Village Apothecary.
To celebrate the week, the
Association of Student Pharmacists
plans to hand out flyers on the Diag this
week that explain how pharmacists can
assist patients.
U.S. News & World Report ranked
the University's College of Pharmacy
number three in the nation in 1997.
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