Running out? Syringe via Africa Studio/Shutterstock
“Hospitals and pharmacies around the country are facing severe shortages of essential drugs. These shortages can limit access to critical medications and compromise patient safety, resulting in serious illness and even death. In a 2011 survey, the American Hospital Association reported that 82% of hospitals had to delay therapy due to a drug shortage. And the consequences of drugs shortages go beyond delays. A 2010 report by the Institute for Safe Medication Practices implicated drug shortages in medication errors, adverse drug reactions and several deaths.
“I’ve seen this happen while working in a hospital in the Washington, DC area. We were forced to use alternative drugs to sedate and paralyze a patient for placement of a breathing tube because we were out of the standard drugs. And those alternative were being rationed, so we had to change to yet another set of drugs to keep the patient sedated.”
