What the heck is happening to the drug supply in this country??? (VANITY)

2/29/2012 | Surrounded by blue

[surroundedbyblue]

I"m a nurse anesthetist, and I just got a work-related email from my boss. Basically it said "please conserve midazolam, fentanyl, morphine, and hydromorphone.....supplies are CRITICALLY short & the hospital is struggling to maintain supplies".

Um, ok. The last time I checked, this was the United States, not Crapistan. How are we "critically short" on all of the major anesthesia drugs that we use??? Am I supposed to offer the patient a bullet to bite?

Are there any FReepers out there who have ties to the pharm industry and can explain this? Speaking with others throughout the hospital, I have learned there are critical drug shortages in the ICU, ER, and oncology areas.

[driftdiver]

Regulations changed which made it more expensive and difficult to produce drugs. Then one main company had problems and shut down. Nobody elsr is producing the drugs

[Reagan69]

My spouse runs a children’s hospital. Drug companies can’t be profitable with the current Medicaid reimbursements so they have just stopped making some drugs. The more the government gets involved, the worse things become.

The hospital is constantly having to deal with critical drug shortages. A lot are drugs for pediatric cancer patients.

Cool,huh !

[PetroniusMaximus]

You need to see this thread.

[Reagan69]

Oh, but not to worry, if Sasha, Miliah or Moochelle ever need drugs to save their sorry lives, I’m sure they will have no problem obtaining them.

[driftdiver]

Yeah its the fault of those rich one percenters

[trustandobey]

Thank you for posting this. My husband is in the hospital with late stage cancer. Shortages of avastin, reglan and one night the nurse told me they had enough for 2 doses of phenergan for the whole hospital! She managed to get one of those for us. It is frightening now but really makes me wonder what the future for us baby boomers will be.

[wideminded]

please conserve midazolam, fentanyl, morphine, and hydromorphone

Those are all generic, right? Is there any chance that there just happen to be proprietary medications that can substitute for these at a large multiple of the price?

I have been having problem finding another generic medication for some time. There is no shortage of the raw materials for making it, there is a lot of demand, and it should be possible for the limited number of manufacturers to make a decent profit on it. The only explanations I have been able to come up with are:

1. Corruption: The makers of brand name products have been able to apply various types of political, regulatory, and business pressure to get the generic companies to limit or halt production.

2. A large portion of production is being diverted to illegal non-prescription use.

[Hot Tabasco]

Demand and less supply, baby!!

I don't think that's the case at all but rather the costs of these new high-end drugs are much higher than what the government and the insurance companies are willing to reimburse the hospitals for. So if administering these drugs to their patients results in a loss to the hospital, what do you expect will happen? You try to do with less..........

Don't forget, the patient doesn't pay the bill, Medicare or their insurance companies do..........

And if Medicare is now putting a cap on drug reimbursements, why do you suppose that is? You think maybe it might be that the government is trying to influence public opinion on health care? Creating controversy between hospitals and patients while blaming the drug companies with the only solution being a take over of those companies by the government?

European socialist countries who have access to these drugs don't have a problem with the supply because the government is willing to pay for them.........

That's the advantage of socialized medicine. But it comes with a price, is that what you want?

[tumblindice]

... warm-up for `The Hunger Games’?

My daughter is reading it & I like to know what she’s reading.

[khelus]

Because the manufacturer of the the new cheaper ones donated a bunch of money to the right politicians. These new inhalers, just where are they manufactured?

My guess would be India and/or China.

The CFC inhalers used medical freon as a propellant and had been around since the 1950's with an excellent safety and dependability record. In the late 1970's a patent on an inexpensive manufacture method was to expire, and many of the CFC inhalers were moving into manufacture by generics. Lo and behold the freon patent holder came across some junk science about freon and the ozone hole and glomed onto it.

The end result was removing the medical exception for medical freon from the Kyoto protocol and a whole new generation of inhalers that were inadequately tested, fast tracked by the FDA, and produced $$$ for big chemical and big pharma. The new inhalers do not work as well, are prone to clogging as the most inopportune moments, and contain a slew of leachables, contaminents, and known allergens.

Financial incentives for 'patient education' were doled out to:
The American Lung Association (ALA}, The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA), The Allergy and Asthma Network Mothers of Asthmatics (AANMA), The American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (AAAAI), The American Academy of Pediatrics, The American Association for Respiratory Care (AARC), The American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI), The American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP), The American Thoracic Society (ATS)

[khelus]

"You can have it all"


Beautiful. You have posted so much about what has gone wrong in a few words and a picture.

[surroundedbyblue]

In my hospital (and the system it is part of) Brevital, pentothal, and propofol were all short at the same time. We now have propofol, but still no brevital or pentothal. And, our shortage now extends to midaz, fentanyl, Dilaudid, and morphine. It’s crazy.

Recently we had ZERO supply of THAM for our liver transplants. I was told to use sodium bicarb. Well, that’s nice but what do you do when the patient’s sodium is 150?? THERE’S A REASON WE USE THAM IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!! Stupid beaurocrats!!!

[Kirkwood]

Just in time medicine. Having supplies sitting on a shelf is no longer considered economically justified under the obama way of life.

[tiki]

I don’t know but I did a search and came up with this page, there are a lot of shortages.

http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/DrugSafety/DrugShortages/ucm050792.htm

[khelus]

... It is frightening now but really makes me wonder what the future for us baby boomers will be.

[Selene]

OMG! We are Crapistan.

[bgill]

It’s my understanding that the DEA sets quotas for manufacturers of Schedule I and II medications. I read an article where Ritalin and other ADD drugs are in short supply because the DEA didn’t guess right.

This sounds just like Russia a few decades ago. I remember when thye forgot to add toothbrushes to 'the list' so none were made one year.

[DuncanWaring]

I seriously doubt that.

Medicine during hospital visits is not “free as part of the surgical package”.

Hospital markups on drugs are in the thousands of percents.

I saw a story recently about a drug dose that should have cost pennies being billed in excess of $400.

[wintertime]

What’s going on?

Answer: Socialism

Atlas is Shrugging

[Excellence]

I went through a non-emergency laparotomy. The surgeon refused me post-op pain meds because, he said, I didn't weigh enough (105 lb.). Nine months later, same surgery, different doctor, same weight, plenty of meds. I think the first doctor was a sadist.