Belmont University will launch a pharmacy school in fall 2008. The announcement was made (this morning/yesterday), making it the second school in a three-mile radius to do so in the past few months.
Belmont officials say their pharmacy plans have been in the works since the mid-90s and that there is plenty of room for growth in the field. Last fall, Lipscomb University announced its plans to start a 4-year pharmacy program. The two schools will make a total of only four in the state, so half of the Tennessee pharmacy programs will soon be on Belmont Boulevard.
Analysts suggest the need is there. Industry statistics show 157-thousand pharmacy jobs will be vacant by 2020 because of an aging and increasingly medicated population.
HCA has partnered with Belmont in its health science college and company chairman Jack Bovender says the perfect storm is coming for pharmacists.
“As this baby boom generation is aging and will need more health care, the majority of the professions are filled themselves by baby boomers who will be retiring, which means that the crush and the needs are even greater than they would normally be in this situation.”
Both Lipscomb and Belmont will fill inaugural classes next fall. Belmont plans on graduating 75 pharmacists each year once the school is up and running.
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