BYRON CENTER, Mich. (WZZM) - Metro Health Hospital's supply of epinephrine has been replenished. Epinephrine is a life saving drug injected into patients to revived them when their heart or breathing stops.
The hospital had the drug, but not in the standard-sized syringe doses that are common protocol. "So, instead of being in a ready to use form...we had to have a syringe with a multi-dose vial, pull it up into a syringe which adds time during a code...there's new risk to the system" said Pete Haverkamp, Metro's pharmacist.
Haverkamp says 80 percent of the nation's hospitals have experienced drug shortages this year. The leading treatment areas are: cancer, anti-infection, cardiovascular and central nervous system products. Tuesday the American Medical Association declared that the medicinal shortages are a national health emergency.
At Grand Rapids' Kay Pharmacy, pharmacist Mike Koelzer said shortages for his customers are mostly an annoyance, not an emergency. Except for the drug Adderall, used to treat Attention Deficit Disorder.
He calls that shortage a "huge problem." "Some (patients) are maybe addicted to it but some need it for their daily life just to function - we've had people coming in just in tears because they've been around the city looking for their Adderall prescriptions and just can't find them" Koelzer said Tuesday.
Haverkamp says hospitals and doctors cope with the shortage by discussing alternative, substitute drugs with their patients. Unfortunately, he says, sometimes those substitute also come into short supply.
The American Society of Health System Pharmacists says much of the problem is due to manufacturing problems exacerbated by a consolidation in the drug industry. When only two companies make one product, and one of the makers has production problems, shortages quickly manifest themselves.
http://www.safemedication.com/drugshortages