Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Running on Empty - August 2019 - Subscribe to Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.

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A U G U S T 2 0 1 9 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y. N E T • 3 3 ent. Pharmaceutical companies hit with FDA warnings for failing to comply with quality med- ication production standards has led to massive recalls and forced some manufacturing plants to shutter, putting more strain on other drug producers that might not have the capacity or resources to fill the void. In September 2015, Pfizer acquired Hospira in a major merger involv- ing companies that make a vast majority of injectable medications. Pfizer inherited Hospira's manufacturing plants, which were wrought with quality control problems, and implemented a remediation plan 2 years ago. But production problems, unbelievably and frustratingly, persist. In general, the generic injectables market remains fragile. There isn't much of a profit incentive — generics are expensive to make and inexpensive to buy — for companies to produce the medications. Big Pharma is big businesses, first and foremost, and companies are opting to focus their manufacturing resources on more lucrative brand-name therapeu- tics. Mother Nature and market forces make drug short- ages predictability unpredictable — and extremely dif- ficult to manage. But try telling that to frustrated anes- thesiologists and surgeons who don't give two shots of saline about the underlying causes that limit their access to needed med- ications. You can look for untapped resources (spoiler alert: none exist) to find the drugs they want or you can accept that managing drug shortages is the new normal and realize that doing it well Pamela Bevelhymer, RN, BSN, CNOR

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