Tips for Getting Through Medication Shortages

Experts: Nicole Stewart, RN, BSN, and Jordan Evans, RN, BSN

Nurse Coordinators, Congenital Hyperinsulinism Center

Being told a medication is on backorder can be very scary and concerning. Not long ago, many patient families of the Congenital Hyperinsulinism Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) experienced difficulty obtaining diazoxide, the front-line medication to treat hypoglycemia (low blood sugar).

What causes medication shortages? There are numerous reasons why medications can become unavailable: pharmacies not receiving shipments from wholesalers, demand becoming higher than supply, and pandemics or natural disasters. Pharmacists are typically not aware of the shortage until their orders are unable to be filled.

When we received calls that families were having trouble obtaining diazoxide, we went right to work. We first started by speaking with the pharmacies, which told us they had no estimated time of availability. We then escalated our calls to the manufacturers of the medication and waited for their responses.

The timeline on production kept getting pushed back and panic set in. Luckily, we were able to find the medication for families through hospital pharmacies, pharmacies whose distributors still had some available, and by changing the medication from generic to a brand name. As you can imagine, this took a lot of time — but at the end of the day, we were working hard to try to resolve this problem and keep our patients safe.

What can families do to help? Always try to contact your pharmacy a few days before a refill is due to make sure it will have the medication available. If the medication is unavailable, ask the pharmacist to run a crosscheck to see if any other pharmacies in their chain have any in stock. Keep in mind that pharmacies can only look at other pharmacies from the same chain. If your pharmacy is still unable to find the medication, check your insurance formulary to see what is needed to switch from genetic to brand or vice versa. It may require a prior authorization or an override.

Once this information is gathered, call your provider to make them aware.

You are not alone in these circumstances! Have comfort in knowing we will always be working behind the scenes as hard as we can to help you in those difficult times.