Hospital Pharmacists Scrambling Amid Vast Drug Shortages: Emergency Physicians Between Roc and a Hard Place

On the Web site of the American Society of Health System Pharmacists (ASHP), the list goes on for pages: atracurium, bumetanide, buprenorphine, clindamycin, cisatracurium, epinephrine, fentanyl, furosemide, lipid emulsion, lidocaine, metronidazole, naloxone, propofol, rocuronium, succinylcholine, sulfamethoxazole-trimethoprim, torsemide, vancomycin hydrochloride, vecuronium. They are all sterile injectable drugs that an emergency physician might use every day, and they and dozens of other drugs—more than 140 in late November—are on the list because they are either unavailable or in extremely short supply. There is a similar though less complete list, bearing 50 names in late November, on the Web site of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). (Source: Annals of Emergency Medicine)

Tagged as: buprenorphine, opioid treatment, oxycontin, suboxone, suboxone doctor