How to Remain Vigilant with Antimicrobial Shortages

Milena McLaughlin, PharmD, MSc, Assistant Professor, Pharmacy Practice, Midwestern University and Northwestern Memorial Hospital, explains ways to remain vigilant when it comes to drug shortages.

Interview Transcript (slightly modified for readability)

“From working on drug shortages over the past 5, 7 years, I think that a lot of the issues are really a revolving door and I think that everyone just needs to remain vigilant with the drug shortages.

Just make sure that we are monitoring what is on backorder and realizing that a lot of our management strategies are going to come into play over and over again; and so, really being able to tweak those management strategies each time is important because the shortage is probably going to come up again. Then, the next time, we can manage that shortage better.

There’s a lot going on behind the scenes with manufacturers and other stakeholders that try and mitigate these shortages from a higher level, but as frontline providers, we really need to make sure that the end user, the patient, is being kept safe and away from these unintended consequences of drug shortages.”