At least 15 patients have died and many more have been forced into prolonged hospital stays due to the nationwide drug shortage that is causing hospital executives either to shell out big bucks for marked up meds or roll the dice on alternative treatments, reports the Associated Press.
Officials choosing the latter path have been met with, among other things, delays to surgeries and cancer treatments, as oftentimes the decided upon medications prove to be less effective. Joseph Hill, of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, even goes so far as to describe the dilemma as "a crisis," according to the AP.
The problem is so widespread, in fact, that in a survey of 549 U.S. hospitals conducted this summer, more than half indicated that they had been buying drugs from "gray market vendors" rather than their usual wholesalers. Even then, though, those drugs--which are marked up, on average, 650 percent--sometimes won't do the trick.
And while hospitals currently are eating such costs, eventually they'll wind up shifting the burden over to patients and payers.
Several reasons have been cited for the shortages, such as contamination, abandonment of generic drugs due to lower than expected profit margins, theft, and the aforementioned gray market vendors, who aren't necessarily licensed to sell.
In all, 210 drugs are considered to be in short supply by the University of Utah Drug Information Service.
To learn more:
- read this Associated Press article
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