Drug Shortages Hospital Pharmacists Work Magic Behind the Scenes

The author highlights strategies offered by hospital pharmacists for managing drug shortages. These include: working closely with pharmacy buyers to manage inventory; securing as much product as possible for each hospital within a network and then reallocating supply across hospitals as needed; using a Drug Use Policy team of pharmacists who review all of the literature and prepare pharmacy and therapeutic drug reviews to identify alternatives; triaging available supplies; and having pharmacists work closely with physicians on the floors to ensure available clinical data supports decision-making for use of alternative options.