By: Natalie Benninger and Heather Gardiner
March is Pharmacy Appreciation Month, a time to celebrate the essential role that pharmacists and pharmacy technicians play within the health care system and at Women’s College Hospital (WCH).
To learn more about the roles of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians throughout the history of WCH, we visited the Archives at WCH to see what we could find.
The first pharmacist at WCH
According to historical records preserved in the WCH Archives, the hospital’s first pharmacist joined the staff in 1929. Edith Amy Eck, a graduate of the Ontario College of Pharmacy (Class of 1925), began her career at WCH in the drug room located in the basement of 125 Rusholme Road. She worked a few hours a day to help “standardize and reorganize” the room.
At the October 1929 board meeting, the WCH board members discussed at length the advantages of hiring a “graduate druggist” to operate the hospital’s drug room. It was argued that a professionally trained pharmacist could assist the hospital with the purchasing of drugs, making stock solutions, and filling prescriptions for outpatients. Ms. Eck was hired on a part-time basis and moved to the newly established WCH Outpatient Clinic at 74 Grenville Street that year. The Clinic operated out of this location while the new WCH was constructed next door.
Ms. Eck remained with WCH until 76 Grenville Street was completed in 1935. When the new hospital opened, it included a pharmacy on its first floor; however, it is believed that the small outpatient pharmacy at 74 Grenville Street continued to operate. Gladys Titus, a graduate of the Ontario College of Pharmacy (Class 1918), joined the hospital as its first full-time pharmacist.
Fun fact: to honour the important role of Edith Amy Eck in the history of Pharmacy in Canada, the Canadian Society of Hospital Pharmacists has an award that is giving out annually in her name, recognizing a pharmacist who makes a significant contribution to patient care or a humanitarian initiative within the health care community.
Historical roots of WCH Pharmacy’s commitment to teaching
With the opening of WCH’s new south wing and the moving of its Outpatient Clinic into the main hospital building in 1956, a new outpatient pharmacy was established and connected to the hospital’s general pharmacy.
WCH announced in an issue of Canadian Hospital that its new pharmacy was now “modernized and set up as a teaching department”. Beginning in 1960, WCH began to host pharmacy residents in partnership with UofT’s Faculty of Pharmacy post-graduate program in Hospital Pharmacy. It also welcomed undergraduate students from the faculty to participate in clinical training in the hospital.
History of the pharmacy technician role
It has been more challenging to find information about pharmacy technicians throughout the history of WCH. This may be in part due to the evolution of the title of pharmacy technician, which became regulated fairly recently in Ontario, in 2010. Prior to that time, there were variations in the title and responsibilities of the role. Looking back to 1961, WCH Pharmacy staff had two lay helpers in addition to four full-time pharmacists. In 1957, Pharmacy staff consisted of three full-time pharmacists and one full-time and one part-time pharmacy clerk. We believe the titles of “pharmacy clerk” and “lay helper” were likely precursors to the pharmacy technician role. Their responsibilities were to assist the pharmacists with their daily tasks, including the preparation and compounding of medications.
Fun fact: Ontario was the first province in Canada to regulate pharmacy technicians. This ensured protection of the title to be used only by those with proper training, knowledge and skills to carry out the responsibilities of the role.
Comparison to WCH Pharmacy today
The roles of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians have evolved significantly over the years. Since Edith Amy Eck joined WCH in 1929, the role of the pharmacist has become much more clinical, with our pharmacists today working closely with the interdisciplinary health care team and participating very little in drug distribution. The role of the pharmacy technician has also evolved, initially fulfilling the role of assistant to the pharmacist in the 1950s, to a role with its own scope and independent duties and responsibilities within medication management today. For Pharmacy in general, there is far more automation and commercial manufacturing of medications, reducing the need for compounding of preparations in most hospital pharmacies.
For more information about pharmacy at WCH, contact Natalie Benninger, Manager of Pharmacy Services at natalie.benninger@wchospital.ca.
