Pharmacy

The Coast Guard Pharmacy Community consists of 15 pharmacy officers, 2 of which are administrative billets and 13 field billets.

Managerial Billets:

• Headquarters, Washington, DC – Pharmacy Program Coordinator/Pharmacy Chief

• Maintenance Logistics Command, Atlantic, Norfolk, VA – LANT Regional Pharmacy Consultant

Field Billets:

The field billets are 0-5 (Commander) grade billets. With only 13 pharmacists assigned to field billets, and almost 40 Coast Guard clinics and over 150 independent duty sites, each pharmacy officer not only is responsible for total pharmacy operations in their assigned clinics, but has responsibility of collateral sites assigned to their area of responsibility, as well. These collateral sites include clinics operating with pharmacy techs (either Armed Forces “C” school or OJT trained), sickbays with health services technicians, CG Cutters, small boat stations, Port Security Units (PSU), and Strike Force Units, to name a few.

The clinic pharmacies are, for the most part, one person operations. Few CG clinics experience high volume of prescription processing; therefore, the pharmacists may be given support by health services technicians who have attended “C” school training or were trained on the job and completed the Pharmacy Watchstander program (Quality Improvement Implementation Guide [QIIG] 41). There are no guarantees that a pharmacist will have this support full time, since the technician is a trained Health Services Technician and may be required to work in other parts of the clinic.

PHARMACY SERVICES
Coast Guard facilities provide ambulatory care services, with CG active duty members having priority. All others are by space availability. CG pharmacy service is opened to Uniformed Service members and their beneficiaries. However, for prescriptions written by outside (of the clinic) providers, only those 13 facilities with a pharmacy officer available will be authorized to fill and dispense outside prescriptions. The CG pharmacy formulary is based on the DoD Basic Core Formulary. Because there are no specialty clinics in CG facilities, the pharmacy does not routinely carry specialty pharmaceuticals.

EXPERIENTIAL (EXTERN) PROGRAM
Because of the limited locations of Coast Guard pharmacy officers and their numerous responsibilities, the decision to support a college of pharmacy’s Experiential (Extern) Program is solely dependant on the pharmacy officer. Colleges of pharmacy wishing to inquire into the possibility and availability of establishing an MOU with the clinic are to contact CAPT Deborah Thompson, CG Pharmacy Program Coordinator/Pharmacy Chief at Deborah.J.Thompson@uscg.mil or (202) 475-5181. She will forward your request for consideration to the pharmacy officer assigned nearest the college. Be advised that room and board and travel is the sole responsibility of the student.

The Coast Guard does not have a scholarship program for pharmacy. As well, it does not have a program to help with student loans. Other agencies within the U.S. Public Health Service does offer this and interested persons may visit their website at www.usphs.org.

PHARMACY AWARDS PROGRAM
This program was established in 2006. Annually, one pharmacist and one pharmacy technician is recognized for excellence in pharmaceutical services, ensuring patient safety, exemplifying devotion to duty, honor, and country, professionalism, and the Semper Paratus spirit. Presentation of the award is held during the DoD Combined Forces Pharmacy Seminar in October. A complete detail of the award program is available in the Pharmacy award information / package.