FAIRFIELD, IOWA -- Hospitals across the country are experiencing drug shortages. In June of 2011, the American Hospital Association surveyed more than 800 hospitals across the nation and 47% of them said they face drug shortages on a daily basis.
In our viewing area in Iowa, Carri Pumphrey, the Pharmacy Director at the Jefferson County Health Center said the hospital has been facing drug shortages for the past couple of years.
"A lot of generic manufacturers are not making medications because they're not making enough money on certain medications so they stop making it which causes difficulty on the other manufacturers to keep up," said Pumphrey.
When the pharmacy can not get the drug a patient needs, she said they combine other drugs that will cause the same effect or get the same drug in a larger or smaller dosage and alert physicians and nurses on the changes.
"Our concern is medication safety. How are we going to make it safe for the patient? If it's a different strength, we have to provide more education for the nurses. If we can't get the medicine at all, then we have to go talk to the physician and tell them we can't get the medicine and find alternatives."
Pumphrey said that most of the drugs in short supply are the injectable drugs, which are used for patient's IVs, such as Levaquinn, which is used to treat pneumonia. On the other hand, Humphrey said the hospital's emergency medicines are in stock.
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