A new survey reveals that prescription drug shortages frequently delay patient care at 20% of the hospitals in the United States.

Researchers at the American Hospital Association (AHA; Washington DC, USA) conducted a survey to examine the effect of the drug shortages on hospitals, sending a questionnaire to the chief executive officers (CEOs) of all community hospitals in the United States during June 2011. The researchers received responses from 820 institutions, which were included in the analysis. In all, 82% reported delays in patient care as a result of scarce drugs, but 62% said it happens only rarely; 3% of hospitals said shortages often result in adverse events for patients, compared with 32% that said such outcomes are uncommon.

Virtually every hospital (99.5%) reported experiencing a shortage of at least one drug in the last six months. For 44% of hospitals, 21 drugs or more were in short supply. A major complaint among the hospital CEO was that the drug shortage was often unexpected; 77% of the CEOs said they never or rarely receive advance warning from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), manufacturers, or middlemen. As a result, approximately 3 in 4 hospitals are rationing or restricting the use of drugs that are in short supply, and 92% are incurring higher drug costs to cope with the crisis.

The number of drugs in shortage nearly tripled from 61 in 2005 to 178 in 2010, according to the FDA, not including vaccines, immune globulin products, and other biologics, or products made from blood, tissue, or other biological materials. The reasons given for the scarcities include a lack of raw materials, increased demand for some agents, barriers posed by FDA regulations, the use of reduced inventories, and manufacturers declining to make low-profit generics, among others. Some of the most critical shortages involve cancer drugs, and more than half of the hospitals surveyed (66%) reported a shortage of these drugs.

Other therapeutic areas with high levels of drug shortages are surgery and anesthesia (95%), emergency medicine (91%), cardiology (90%), gastroenterology and nutrition (89%), pain management (88%), and infectious diseases (83%). Less than half of the hospitals reported shortages for drugs in neurology (41%), endocrinology (40%), obstetrics and gynecology (39%), allergy (28%), psychiatry (25%), or other (34%). The AHA survey, which was presented in a press conference in the US Congress (Washington DC, USA), was published on July 12, 2011, and is available on the AHA website online (please see Related Links below).

“The number of drugs in short supply is increasing at an alarming rate and hospitals are working diligently to reduce the impact to the patients they care for,” said AHA President and CEO Rich Umbdenstock. “Clinicians need more notice about drug shortages so they have time to act to ensure that patient care is not disrupted.”

The survey also showed that the growing drug shortfall has prompted some patients to take less-effective drugs or in turn delay treatment.

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