School Not Approved By State Apollo College Pharmacy Program Under Fire

Regulators say Apollo College pharmacy students in Spokane may be wasting thousands of dollars on classes not approved by the state.

Apollo, which opened last September in the former Phillips Junior College building, enrolled about 20 students in a pharmacy technician program that the state Board of Pharmacy said it has not approved.

Students pay $6,500 for Apollo’s 11-month program, including a clinical internship and most textbooks.

Apollo director Wayne Adams insisted the for-profit school has board approval to provide pharmacy technician training and no students would be harmed.

Even if Apollo was not approved by the board, Adams said, students could take a test after graduation to complete board certification.

“It’s not like we’re doing anything illegal or out of the norm,” Adams said. “This is not a major deal.”

Unless you hope to work as a pharmacy technician, said Don Williams, executive director of the state pharmacy board in Olympia.

Prior approval is important, he said, because pharmacy technician students cannot be certified to work in Washington unless they are trained in a state-approved program. There is no test that can be taken to substitute for a state-approved program, he said.

“As far as I’m concerned, their students are enrolled in an unapproved program and when they graduate will not be certified by the state,” Williams said. The classes “are worth nothing and anybody who has been attending classes will have to start over again.”

Williams said he plans to investigate whether Apollo is pretending to have board approval and possibly misleading students.

Apollo’s six other health-related programs, including dental assistant, medical assistant and medical laboratory technician, are not affected by this dispute. Those programs have state approval.

Apollo in Spokane is one of six for-profit technical schools owned by Marge Carlson of Phoenix, Ariz. Adams said the college, with 125 to 135 students, is operating as a “branch campus” of the Apollo College in Portland.

The state board has approved the pharmacy technician program in Portland for Washington students who commute across the state line. That approval, which was given five years ago, automatically includes the Spokane “branch campus,” Adams said.

“This is making a mountain out of a mole hill,” he said from his offices at 1101 Fancher Drive. “I’ve got 120 students who are happy.”

Williams, however, said Apollo has never asked the state to extend approval of its Portland pharmacy technician program to Spokane. To get state approval, Apollo needs to submit an application that documents the curriculum and provides other information, Williams said.

Student Lyndie Nguyen is concerned about her training at Apollo. The single mother said she has spent $4,000 to boost her credentials and income to get off public assistance.

“We put our trust and faith in this school,” she said. “I think I need a refund.”

Nguyen said she is not shy about making greater demands of Apollo, which charges three times more than Spokane Community College.

SCC students pay about $2,000 for a one-year pharmacy technician program, instructor Sandi Tschritter said. SCC, which is subsidized by taxpayers, has pharmacy board approval and a licensed pharmacist on staff.

Tschritter said 19 students are enrolled in the SCC program, which has capacity for 25. The pharmacy technician program has three instructors, compared with two at Apollo.

“We run a really clean, really honest operation, and my teachers work very hard,” Adams said.

The Apollo chain of schools is accredited by the Accrediting Bureau of Health Education Schools in Virginia.

Bureau officials confirmed they have temporarily accredited Apollo in Spokane as a branch of Portland.

Assistant director Chris Eaton said the bureau issued the temporary accreditation on Sept. 18, four days after Apollo began classes in Spokane. Eaton said a team of examiners is scheduled to visit the school in March.

“We accredit all of their programs, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they (students) can get a state certification for every program,” Eaton said.