An Update on EMS Medication Shortages

Medication shortages that affect EMS, although declining over the last eight years, have become persistent. The supply of staple drugs that are frequently used by EMS remains chronically unstable. Atropine, epinephrine, lidocaine, dextrose, fentanyl, diazepam and others reappear with frequency on the drug shortage lists around the country. Most recently, the national inventory of IV infusion bags of sodium chloride (i.e., normal saline solution) and dextrose 5%, have been affected. There are several reasons we experience these shortages. The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has researched the causes of drug shortage in the U.S. According to their research, summarized in this infographic, the majority of shortages (93%) are due to manufacturing issues, such as lack of raw materials, production line quality problems, inadequate physical capacity and unexpected loss of production facilities. As an example, when Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, IV solution production was seriously affected as drug manufacturing plants on the island lost power for long periods of time and were otherwise damaged, ceasing production altogether. In the FDA’s Report on Drug Shortages for Calendar Year 2017, the agency indicated that they were notified of 520 potential drug and biological product shortages, from 86 different manufacturers. However, only a small fraction of actual shortages occurred, but they included important medications used by EMS regularly. As early as 2011...
Source: JEMS Administration and Leadership - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Tags: Columns Exclusive Articles Administration and Leadership Operations Source Type: news