Scarce Resource Article: Drug Shortages

Scarce Resource Article: Drug Shortages

In recent years, drug shortages and discontinuations across the United States have reached an alarming rate. Practitioners and health care providers are greatly concerned because shortages have resulted in their inability to prescribe an indicated drug for an illness. Using less desirable, unfamiliar alternatives can result in poor patient outcomes, delays in treatment, medicationadministration errors with dosing, and less therapeutic effects(Paparella, 2012). This can cause frustration among providers who experience frequent shortages and must make sudden changes in their standard practice by using less accepted substitutes. According to Paparella (2012), a survey conducted by the Institute for Safe Medication Practice showed “in 2012 more than 1800 health care practitioners gave significant insight into the difficulties faced by practitioners related to drug shortages” (p. 466). The most common drugs in short supply are generic, sterile injectable drugs such as chemotherapeutic agents, antibiotics, anesthetics, and electrolyte replacement agents (Wilson, 2012).

Multiple factors potentially contribute to the nation’s drug shortage. According to Burr (2012), “approximately 80% of raw materials used for pharmaceuticals are imported from outside the United States” (p. 430). Any disruption in trade such as natural disasters, product contamination, or lack of resource availability can result in the inability of pharmaceutical companies to produce certain drugs. In addition, certain drugs are manufactured by a limited number of companies, which can cause long-term shortages if a disaster occurs. Other factors influencing drug shortages are voluntary recalls by pharmaceutical companies, changes in manufacturing processes, or a sudden increase in demand for a particularmedication (Burr, 2012). Finally, when rumors of potential shortages or price increase transpire, a stockpiling, and hoarding of resources only further aggravate the problem.

Drug shortages are an expensive