Showing posts with label medical rationing sweeps hospitals as drugs come in short supply.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label medical rationing sweeps hospitals as drugs come in short supply.. Show all posts

Saturday, July 6, 2013

Med shortages: A 'health crisis' Though considered immoral, medical rationing sweeps hospitals as drugs come in short supply.


Posted: Saturday, July 6, 2013 12:00 am | Updated: 7:30 am, Sat Jul 6, 2013.
PHILADELPHIA -- Rationing medical care is denounced as immoral in the United States, yet it goes on daily in hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, ambulances and pharmacies.
Since 2006, this country has had worsening shortages of sterile generic injectables -- drugs given by shots or intravenously. Currently, more than 300 medicines crucial to treating cancer, infections, cardiac arrest, premature infants, pain and more are in short supply.
The reasons for this predicament are complex, and the fixes, elusive. The scope, however, is clear from surveysof medical and trade groups. The latest, a University of Pennsylvania poll of oncologists released last month, found 83 percent had dealt with shortages by delaying cancer treatments, omitting doses, using second-choice drugs or sending patients elsewhere.
"Oncologists are facing wrenching decisions about how to allocate lifesaving drugs," said cancer specialist Keerthi Gogineni, who led the Penn survey.
Why aren't patients and families up in arms?
They may not realize their care was compromised or complicated by a shortage unless their caregivers are unusually candid.
"Patients in an intensive care unit often don't know they've been impacted," said pharmacist Erin Fox, who tracks shortages as manager of the University of Utah's drug-information service. "And the hospitals don't want folks to talk about it. They don't want to admit, 'We had a patient who died because we didn't have this drug.'"
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