Shortage of Emergency Medicine Drugs

A study that tracked drugs in a hospital has found that over the past few years, emergency departments (EDs) have experienced shortages of many important drugs, including those that can be substituted as alternatives for those in short supply. The study was reported in the December 2002 issue of the Annals of Emergency Medicine.

Shortages of naloxone, tetanus toxoid, prochlorperazine, fentanyl, and succinylcholine were found. These shortages have affected the way emergency doctors care for patients. In 2001, the hospital experienced a significant jump, when the shortage of drugs rose from 18 to 83 drugs. Of these, 61 affected patients and required doctor notification. Nationally, the researchers tracked 157 shortages from January 2001 to June 2002 and noted that 62% of these are still active and unresolved. The study's authors said solving these shortages will be difficult and will take many years to address, but emergency doctors can take steps to manage these shortages and minimize the impact on patients by opening the lines of communications with their hospital and with their patients about their options.

"The unprecedented shortages of the past several years may be caused, in part, by industry consolidation, with fewer companies producing raw materials and manufacturing drugs,” said E. Martin Caravati, M.D., M.P.H., a co-author of the article, of the University of Utah Health Sciences Center (Salt Lake City, USA). "We are as dependent on foreign sources for our drug supplies as we are for our oil supplies, which is why wars and natural disasters around the world can trigger such shortages.”




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