Close eye on opioid supplies
Painkiller shortages reported nationwide; area hospitals say stockpiles adequate
KINGSTON, N.Y. » Area hospital officials are keeping a close watch on supplies of injected opioids as national reports of a painkiller shortage surface.
Officials with HealthQuest Medical Practice, which operates Northern Dutchess Hospital in Rhinebeck and Vassar Brothers Medical Center in Poughkeepsie, said those facilities are not experiencing the shortages being reported at other hospitals nationwide. However, caution is being employed.
“We are given an allocation of these opioids from our wholesaler and we use a third-party provider to supplement, despite higher prices, whenever possible,” Yuly Belchikov, director of pharmacy at Vassar Brothers Medical Center, said in a state-
ment via email. “We just have to make sure we don’t go over our quantity in regards to how we dispense these opioids.”
As of now, Belchikov said, the hospital is equipped with a good quantity of opioids.
“We give patients oral therapy whenever possible and restrict the injectable to patients who really need them,” Belchikov said. “At this point, we have managed OK.”
According to a recent Associated Press report, manufacturing shortages are forcing many doctors and pharmacists to sometimes ration injected opioids, reserving them for the patients suffering the most. Other patients get sloweracting or less-effective pain pills, alternatives with more side effects or even sedation, the report said.
Medical groups are urging regulators to help, saying some people having surgery, fighting cancer or suffering with severe burns are getting inadequate pain control. They also say shortages frequently cause medication
switches that could lead to deadly mistakes.
Earlier this month, the American Medical Association declared drug shortages a public health crisis, saying it will urge federal agencies to examine the problem as a national security threat and perhaps designate medicine factories as critical infrastructure.
The report said that injected opioid shortages have happened before, in 2001 and 2010, but they weren’t as acute or long-lived.
Sarah Colomello, the spokeswoman for Northern Dutchess Hospital in Rhinebeck, said she has spoken to
several department leaders and found their opinions similar to the experience at Vassar.
“It is difficult getting some opioids, but we are managing it,” Colomello said in an email. “We have gotten enough opioid formulations, from multiple manufacturers, to build a supply, and luckily have not had to draw up individual doses from bulk vials.”
Colonello added that Northern Dutchess Hospital has not had to resort to some of the measures pointed to in the Associated Press report.
“We have been able to order
enough that we haven’t had to resort to some of the options mentioned ... in the article,” Colomello said. We have not run out of certain opioid dosages, requiring that we transfer injected painkillers from large vials into several smaller ones or syringes.”
In a statement, the Westchester Medical Center Health Network said hospitals affiliated with the medical provider are experiencing hefty supplies of opioids.
HealthAlliance of the Hudson Valley,a member of the Westchester Medical Center Health Network,
runs two hospitals in Kingston, one on Mary’s Avenue and the other on Broadway.
“Westchester Medical Center Health Network’s supplies are strong and patient care has not been impacted in any way at HealthAlliance Hospital or any of the facilities in our health network,” the company said in an emailed statement. “Pharmacy administrators continue to monitor the situation and resources can be shared among WMCHealth hospitals, if a need arises.”