PUBLIC HEALTH


Drug shortage Supply problems endanger patients


Texas Medical Association President-Elect Michael Speer, MD, says drug shortages force physicians to make drug substitutions that may not be in patients’ best interest.


“Some of the alternative


drugs aren’t as effective.”


BY CRYSTAL CONDE You need look no farther than neonatal intensive care units in Houston to see the effects of a nationwide shortage of drugs that affects the qual- ity of care and patient safety. Physicians at Texas Children’s Hospital and Ben Taub General Hospital say it’s difficult to give the babies the nutrition they desperately need because of a shortage of calcium gluconate, an injectable that provides needed minerals.


October 2011 TEXAS MEDICINE 23


JIM LINCOLN


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