How do you handle letting the ENTIRE hospital know about shortages. I have made bright orange ,lamenated 4x6cards
THIS DRUG IS ON NATIONAL BACKORDER
RELEASE DATE__________________
ALTERNATIVE ITEM_______________
Etomidate is on national backorder I placed this card on the shelf clip 3 weeks ago and let my supervisor, and several other pharmacy staff know about the shortage. Yesterday a patient was in crises and needed the etomidate ,but pyxis {in that unit only} was out. Nursing told the Director of pharmacy that the drug had been empty for 3 days and they had to go to other machines to get it and that since we did not have any on the shelf the techs that pull the refill sheets just were not filling it! I was told by the director that I need to find a way to let everyone know about shortages and if I had let EVERYONE know about the shortage, the patient would not have almost died. He didn't come out and say exactly that ,but that was implied. After I was talked to about the problem I ran a report from pyxis and there were 173 vials throughout the hospital and NOT ONE person, pharmacist, techs or the DOP even thought about checking this. Anyway I have vented enough. Any ideas/suggestions will be appreciated.

Name of Facility: Wishard hospital

City, State: level 1 trauma center,regional burn center

Years as a Buyer: 9

Hello, fellow Hoosier!
This whole shortage situation is as bad right now as I have ever seen it.
I had a similar incident last Friday with Zemuron. I had emailed 2 key people in the OR to let them know, but (who could have guessed!), they were both on vacation, so the anesthesialogists didn't get the message. First had a very frustrated RN calling up here and venting-she was just reacting to the nasty tempered MD's tantrum. Finally, the chief of anesthesia talked to the pharmacy manager and decided he would use Nimbex. I now have 500 vials of Nimbex on hand and a new OR contacts list for my email--and Dr. Nasty is on it!!
As far as informing everyone, I email the entire pharmacy staff with any bit of info that I think will help them, I talk all the time to the clinical staff and to my director and manager.
They are all pretty good about informing the medical staff. Lots of times it involves a letter in the doctors' mailbox, personal contact, etc.
With all of that there will still be somebody, after days of being out, note attached to the shelf, email, who will ask "are we getting______________ in soon???
Just makes me want to bang my head against a wall!!
And the first question I ask anyone who comes to me is "have you checked to see what's in Pyxis?" Some are finally catching on that Pyxis should be regarded as back up inventory for the pharmacy, not just a repository for drugs that can't be accessed by the pharmacy whenever necessary.
Well, I've vented, too, and have been curious for quite a while about how everyone is handling this latest round of shortages.

Name of Facility: PORTER

City, State: acute care

Years as a Buyer: 9+

That is a pretty high expectation to notify everyone and then have them remember it when in crisis mode. I think that many of us have this same issue and I do not believe there is an easy button for this scenario.

Here are some suggestions:
1. Every month we have a P & T meeting. For that meeting, I prepare a spreadsheet that lists all the backorder/hard to procure items we carry that I know about. I also send this document over to all of our clinics to be shared with the staff. I also attach this document to the want book clipboard for everyone in Pharmacy. We have been doing this format for a couple of years and it cuts down on some of these situations (not all).

2. I put bright colored cards on the shelf like you do.

3. I always communicate the information that is high priority to the Director, Clinical Pharmacist, Pharmacy Manager immediately upon discovery.

Hope this helps. I look forward to other replies on the board to learn more ways to communicate.

Name of Facility: St. Francis Health Center

City, State: Acute

Years as a Buyer: 5 in health care & 20+ in retail hard goods

I forget ot mention that I do the same for P & T--prepare a list of shortages with reason, if there is one (the doctors ALWAYS want to know why!).
I also print every email that I send, as do the pharmacy diretor and manager. Those go into a communication logbook that is available to refresh everyone's memory.
There surely are no easy solutions and you just have to try lots of things, I guess, to see what works for your own department!

Name of Facility: PORTER

City, State: acute care

Years as a Buyer: 9+

Our Pharmacy Manager is our main dispensing Pharmacist on 1st shift, so I let her know. Also, I try to identify key people to let them know. For the Zemuron issue, I spoke with our Dir. of OR, Dir. of Anesthesia and called and spoke to the CRNA on call when I first found out to get their input on what to do.

The thing I try to remember is, just because you tell them, doesn't mean they'll listen, and any common sense that was present flies out the door in a crisis. It still amazes me that no one checked a Pyxis report, that would have been my first thought, but you can't control what other people do.

We also have a Pyxis Coordinator, so once that shortage gets communicated to that person, its their responsibility to move things around in Pyxis so that the priority departments maintain stock of the item.

It's SO unreasonable to expect you to tell everyone about every shortage. I would put together a list of folks and when you have a shortage, look at the list and think who on that list would benefit from knowing about this shortage; and I'd continue putting the sheet up. At some point, RPh and techs are going to have to take some accountability for assisting in this process.

Years as a Buyer: 2

Another thing I do, even if I've told them in person or on the phone, is follow up with an e-mail. That way you've got it in writing that you've communicated, that has saved me so many times when someone claims to have been left out of the loop on an issue.

Years as a Buyer: 2

Isn't that the truth--documentation = CYA!!!

Name of Facility: PORTER

City, State: acute care

Years as a Buyer: 9+

One other thing I do besides all that is run a house wide med summary report from Pyxis. I then post that print out in the medication bin or on the shelf where the drug is kept so the pharmacy staff has no excuse as to why a machine is empty. That process has seemed to help out greatly!

Name of Facility: Provena St. Joseph Medical Center

City, State: Community

Years as a Buyer: 9

What I did was sent out pages to the Clinical pharmacist.
We have a white board that I wrote on and made a small note saying This item is Manufacture b/o since _______(date). Then I take a Neon Label and put these in the Pyxis pocket where the drug is out.....

So they have enough communication....Good Luck

City, State: Kern Medical Center

Years as a Buyer: 6

Don't Publish - Off Topic...

Jackie, are you coming to Vegas this year?

Years as a Buyer: 2

Yes, My husband and I are coming . Are you?

Name of Facility: Wishard hospital

City, State: level 1 trauma center,regional burn center

Years as a Buyer: 9

Of course! :)

Years as a Buyer: 2