Local hospitals work to minimize national drug shortage impact
PORTLAND, Ore. – Local hospitals are doing what they can to keep a nationwide drug shortage from impacting their patients.
On Friday, the Food and Drug Administration said it has seen a record number of shortages this year – mostly injectable medications.
Local hospitals have to work hard to minimize the impact on patients, but the reason for the shortage is out of their control. The FDA reports manufacturing and quality problems are the most common factors causing the shortage. Part of that is because the affected drugs are cancer treatments and other IV and sterile drugs. Those drugs require extra steps to make sure they're safe.
For Jennifer Zanon, operations manager for Oregon Health and Science University's pharmacy, the nationwide drug shortage isn't just a headline. It's a challenge to overcome every day at her job.
"Every day, every week and it's constantly moving, and we just try to just stay on top of it and keep our eye on the drugs that are getting low," she said.
The pharmacy is getting low on everything from critical cancer treatments to basic electrolytes. For each case her goal is the same:
"It's patient care. It’s just staying on top of it day after day, you know, trying to make sure that you are prepared to treat your patients and/or make sure they have appropriate alternatives," Zanon said.
Dr. Shiuhwen Luoh treats breast cancer patients. He said he worries the drug shortage could hurt them down the line.
"The way it looks right now, it seems more and more drugs (are) adding to the list of shortage, so just based on the trend, I think this will be in issue for awhile," he said.
So far, OHSU says it is managing with a system to track each patient and their needs.
"We try to proactively, ahead of time, understand what patients we have, what medications they're going to be using, and when it really starts getting to a critical level, we'll allocate that product for them so they know they have it when they come in there," said Zanon.
The hospital has even created a committee to specifically discuss options should cancer drugs run low.
They are efforts that must become the short-term solution until the FDA can find a long-term resolution.
The FDA says it works with the manufacturing firms and has asked them to ramp up production as necessary. That may mean, for example, expediting safety reviews of new production lines.