A Comparison of Drug Shortages in the Hospital Setting in the United States and Saudi Arabia: An Exploratory Analysis (original) (raw)
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Drug shortages in large hospitals in Riyadh: a cross-sectional study
Annals of Saudi medicine
Drug shortages are a serious and complex issue in any healthcare system. We conducted this study because the prevalence of drug shortages in Saudi Arabia is largely unknown, while there have been reports of shortages. To explore the prevalence and characteristics of drug shortages as well as identify strategies to minimize their impact on patient care and safety in large hospitals. Questionnaire-based cross-sectional study. Pharmacy departments in secondary and tertiary care hospitals in the city of Riyadh. Pharmacists in ten hospitals, categorized as Ministry of Health [MOH], MOH-affiliated medical cities, and non-MOH, were recruited using convenience sampling. The European Association of Hospital Pharmacists drug shortage questionnaire was administered to survey pharmacists about drug shortages in their hospitals. Percentages of drug class shortages, characteristics, and strategies to minimize impact on patient care and safety across each hospital sector. Of 200 pharmacists invite...
A Survey Regarding Drug Shortage in Tertiary Care Hospitals of Karachi, Pakistan
Journal of Pharmacy Practice and Community Medicine, 2017
Background: Drug shortages have become a big concering issue for all over the world and for health care providers. The shortage of drugs have adverse and drastic effect on patient care and prescribing practices. Objectives: This aim of this study to assess the current drug shortage problems and adverse effect in of tertiary care hospitals of Karachi. Methodology: This was a cross sectional study in which data collected from different sources: Physicians and Pharmacist by using purposive sampling technique from October 2016 to March 2017. A total of 472 physician and pharmacist had participated in this study and the data was analysed by SPSS. Result: The shortage of injectable dosage form of drug is more common, that accounts for 52.2 % shortage. The main cause of drugs shortage is to increase drugs price which was rated by more than 36% participants.The adverse outcomes due to drugs shortage patient face are length of stay (25%) and cost of treatment (14%) increases reported by respondents. Conclusion: Those physicians and pharmacist who are working in public and private hospital sectors have to face drugs shortage problems. The shortage of drugs happen due to various causes and healthcare staff have to bear several challenges furthermore, all of these in the end make negative consequences on patient health.
Cureus, 2024
Background: Drug shortages have become a significant challenge globally, affecting healthcare delivery and patient outcomes. This study aimed to assess drug shortages’ prevalence, causes, and impact at a tertiary care hospital in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), providing actionable insights for future mitigation strategies. Methods: A retrospective descriptive study was conducted at Mediclinic Parkview (MPAR) Hospital, part of Mediclinic Middle East (MCME), UAE. Data were collected from January 2019 to December 2023. Reported drug shortages were analyzed to assess their frequency, duration, causes, and management, with a focus on identifying trends and underlying factors. Results: Drug shortages peaked at 995 in 2020, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. The median time spent managing shortages reached 19.5 days per shortage in Q3 2020. Oral forms accounted for the highest frequency (n = 2231), representing 61% of all shortages, followed by topical forms (n = 414, 11%) and injection forms (n = 386, 10%). Most affected drugs were in the infectious disease (n = 547, 15%), cardiovascular (n = 387, 11%), and respiratory (n = 330, 9%) categories. Drug shortages were driven by regulatory issues and manufacturing delays (39%), unknown reasons (29%), and supply chain disruptions exacerbated by the pandemic (10%). A monopoly environment worsened the situation and limited sourcing flexibility, with 66% of shortages linked to zero supply competitors. Tirzepatide (n = 20) and oseltamivir (n = 18) were the drugs most frequently reported to be unavailable over the 60-month study interval. Regarding management efforts, 80% of the time was spent gathering information and communicating with the different stakeholders. The hospital’s response included contacting prescribers for alternatives and increased reliance on internal procurement and inter-pharmacy coordination. These shortages caused significant operational strain, with increased workloads and higher costs. Conclusion: The study highlighted the need for adopting proactive measures, improved strategies, enhanced communication, and better preparedness to address future drug shortages. Key actions involved investing in technology, strengthening supplier relationships, and advocating for policy reforms to mitigate risks and ensure continuity of care.
A Quantitative Analysis of the Causes of Drug Shortages in Jordan: A Supply Chain Perspective
This study investigates the causes of drug shortage in Jordan. Based on thorough literature review, five causes related to supply chain were identified, namely regulatory and legislative processes, manufacturing-related issues, distribution factors, supply and demand imbalance, and human factors. Data were collected from 221 professionals selected from Jordan Food and Drug Administration (JFDA), pharmaceutical manufacturing sector, hospital professionals, and other nodes in the supply chain including distributors and wholesalers. Multiple-regression analysis was used to test the hypothesized relationships. The results indicate that four causes are significantly related to drug shortages in Jordan, regulatory and legislative processes, distribution factors, human factors, and supply and demand imbalance. Manufacturing-related issues are not significantly related to drug shortages. Implications and recommendations for the decision makers are proposed on the basis of the study results.
The Canadian Journal of Hospital Pharmacy
Background: Drug shortages represent a complex global problem affecting patients and health care professionals on a daily basis. Objectives: To identify, describe, and compare drug shortages in health care facilities in Canada and 4 European countries in early 2018. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in 1 hospital in each of 5 countries: Canada, France, Belgium, Spain, and Switzerland. Over a 4-week period, shortage data were collected daily by each hospital using a standardized grid and a standard process. Results: From January 8 to February 2, 2018, there were a total of 84 shortages (median duration 32 days) in the Canadian hospital, 62 shortages (median duration 9 days) in the French hospital, 46 shortages (median duration 37 days) in the Belgian hospital, 28 shortages (median duration 25 days) in the Spanish hospital, and 98 shortages (median duration 68 days) in the Swiss hospital. The number of manufacturers implicated in the shortages was 28 for the Canadian hospital, 30 for the French hospital, 19 for the Belgian hospital, 16 for the Spanish hospital, and 42 for the Swiss hospital. Most of the shortages involved parenteral drugs, with both innovative and generic manufacturers being affected. Most therapeutic classes were affected by shortages to some extent, with the top 3 classes being anti-infective agents (accounting for 21.1% of shortages overall), central nervous system drugs (11.3%), and cardiovascular drugs (8.2%). Conclusions: Drug shortages occurred almost daily in all of the study hospitals. Across the 5 hospitals, the frequency of shortages varied by a factor of 3, which may imply similar variability at the national level. All stakeholders should work more diligently to prevent and manage drug shortages.
Access to Medicines and Pharmaceutical Policy in Saudi Arabia: A Scoping Review
Integrated Pharmacy Research and Practice
This scoping review includes studies on pharmaceutical access, shortages, generics, availability, pharmacoeconomics, and pricing restrictions. The study's findings may aid in developing excellent pharmaceutical and access policies in the country. Objective: To conduct a scoping review documenting access to medicines and Pharmaceutical Policy in Saudi Arabia. Methodology: The PRISMA-ScR guidelines were used to perform a scoping review. The articles were screened using databases from Google Scholar, EBSCO, Science Direct, and the University of Huddersfield Library. The selection, aims, results, and conclusion of each original research publication published between 2010 and 2022 were evaluated. To categorize the articles, a theme analysis was done. Results: This study includes nineteen publications. The chosen articles revealed four themes. Among these topics were: Access to medications 36.84% Pharmacoeconomic 36.84%), which were the predominant theme followed by Generic Medicines 15.80%, and Cancer drug financing 10.54%. There are myriad challenges related to high-cost medicines. Access restrictions to medications have significant effects on patient morbidity and mortality; as a result, policy decision-makers frequently consider this issue. Access to medicines suffers budgetary limitations and the increasing cost of innovative medicines. Access to medicines for all patients could be significantly impacted by delays in patient access to new therapies. Conclusion: The available evidence revealed that Saudi Arabia's healthcare system has numerous issues ranging from cancer drug financing, medicine shortages, and access issue. In order to achieve the highest health standards possible, it is crucial that each individual has access to medicines and has the financial, physical, and social means to do so. However, the price of some medications can be prohibitive for people who need to obtain them. The study's outcomes could help the country develop pharmaceutical and access policies related to medicines.
Drug Shortages: A Complex Health Care Crisis
Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 2014
National tracking of drug shortages began in 2001. However, a significant increase in the number of shortages began in late 2009, with numbers reaching what many have termed crisis level. The typical drug in short supply is a generic product administered by injection. Common classes of drugs affected by shortages include anesthesia medications, antibiotics, pain medications, nutrition and electrolyte products, and chemotherapy agents. The economic and clinical effects of drug shortages are significant. The financial effect of drug shortages is estimated to be hundreds of millions of dollars annually for health systems across the United States. Clinically, patients have been harmed by the lack of drugs or inferior alternatives, resulting in more than 15 documented deaths. Drug shortages occur for a variety of reasons. Generic injectable drugs are particularly susceptible to drug shortages because there are few manufacturers of these products and all manufacturers are running at full capacity. In addition, some manufacturers have had production problems, resulting in poor quality product. Although many suppliers are working to upgrade facilities and add additional manufacturing lines, these activities take time. A number of stakeholder organizations have been involved in meetings to further determine the causes and effects of drug shortages. A new law was enacted in July 2012 that granted the Food and Drug Administration additional tools to address the drug shortage crisis. The future of drug shortages is unknown, but there are hopeful indications that quality improvements and additional capacity may decrease the number of drug shortages in the years to come.
Three Years Evaluation of Drug Shortages from Educational Pharmacies in Tehran
The effectiveness of any drug supply systems in providing a trustworthy supply of essential drugs is a critical issue. To evaluate this effectiveness, it is necessary to watch over the status of the essential medicines in any country impartially and continuously. Some countries and also the World Health Organization (WHO) have codified a list of minimum medicines needed for a basic health care system and published them in assortments as a list of essential medicines. The aim of this study was to give an evaluation of the shortages status in Iran and identify the strengths and weaknesses of policies made in Ministry of Health during the years 2005 to 2008 in providing the essential drugs based on the WHO list of essential medicines. The reports used in this retrospective study were collected from the central purchasing unit of one of the main chain drugstores in the country (13-Aban Pharmacy) every 2 to 3 weeks. In these reports, a drug is added to the list of shortages when the requested drug is not delivered. The reports were studied and the results were analyzed based on the WHO list of essential medicines and the national drug list of Iran. The shortages always included 20 to 40 medicines from the list of essential drugs compiled by WHO. Based on this finding, the Ministry of Health and particularly Food and Drug Organization can compile a National List of Essential Medicines and try to always supply them and prevent their shortage.
Journal of Pharmacy Practice and Community Medicine
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License INTRODUCTION The Hospital pharmacy establishment needs minimum standard. The American society of hospital pharmacy published minimum standard of hospital pharmacy consisted of several elements for instance but not limited to the leadership, drug distribution and control Human Resources, education, training, and pharmacy research. [1] The ASHP conducted a survey at every certain period to measure the pharmacy services across united states of America over past years until now. [2,3,4,5,6,7] Recently the ASHP is focusing on six domain like prescribing, transcending, dispensing, Administration, drug monitoring, and patient education. [2,3] Every year surveyed about two domains. The Saudi Pharmaceutical Society with the cooperation of ASHP before several years did a survey in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with same six domains. [8,9,10] However, the number of hospitals was few and not investigated Ministry of health hospitals. Also, it was hard to find hospital pharmacy practice in Gulf and Middle East counties. The objective of this study is to explore the National Survey of Pharmacy Practice at MOH hospitals in Saudi Arabia, with emphasis on the pharmacy management and resources. METHODS It is a 4-months cross-sectional National Survey of Pharmacy Practice at MOH hospitals in Saudi Arabia. The study consisted of two parts; the demographic information and the second part contained eighty-five questions divided into nine domains drove from American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) and Saudi Pharmaceutical Society (SPS) survey, the international standard of Joint Commission of Hospital Accreditation in addition to the local standards of Saudi Center of healthcare accreditation. [3,5,8,9,10,11,12] The parts were pharmacy management and resources, prescribing and medication control, preparation of medications and dispensing, computerized and pharmacy technology, clinical pharmacy services, drug