IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0174556.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Time spent by Belgian hospital pharmacists on supply disruptions and drug shortages: An exploratory study

Author

Listed:
  • Elfi De Weerdt
  • Thomas De Rijdt
  • Steven Simoens
  • Minne Casteels
  • Isabelle Huys

Abstract

Introduction: Supply problems of drugs are an increasing and worldwide problem, also in Belgium. Hospital pharmacists try to manage drug supply problems to minimize the impact on patient care. This study aims to quantify in a detailed manner how much time employees of 17 Belgian hospital pharmacies spend on drug supply problems. Methods: During six months, employees of Belgian hospital pharmacies filled in the daily time spent on drug supply problems using a template containing all steps which can be executed to manage drug supply problems. Additionally, Belgian hospital pharmacists were asked to report the drugs which experienced drug supply problems together with the solution for this problem. Results: Hospital pharmacists spent a median of 109 minutes a week on drug supply problems, with a minimum of 40 minutes per week and a maximum of 216 minutes per week. Fifty-nine percent of the total time spent on drug supply problems was executed by hospital pharmacists, 27% by pharmacy technicians; the rest was performed by logistic or administrative personnel. About one third of the total time spent was invested in gathering information on the supply problem. About two third of the supply disruptions caused drug shortages, meaning there was a need to switch to another (generic) therapeutic alternative. For most drug shortages, a Belgian generic medicine could be found. However in some cases, the alternative had to be ordered abroad or for some drug shortages, no alternative was available. Conclusion: These exploratory results on time spent by hospital pharmacists on drug supply problems in Belgium highlight the economic impact of drug supply problems for hospital pharmacies. A fully reliable, daily updated list on the federal agencies websites would be a major help to hospital pharmacists.

Suggested Citation

  • Elfi De Weerdt & Thomas De Rijdt & Steven Simoens & Minne Casteels & Isabelle Huys, 2017. "Time spent by Belgian hospital pharmacists on supply disruptions and drug shortages: An exploratory study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(3), pages 1-15, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0174556
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0174556
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0174556
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0174556&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0174556?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kim Pauwels & Steven Simoens & Minne Casteels & Isabelle Huys, 2015. "Insights into European Drug Shortages: A Survey of Hospital Pharmacists," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(3), pages 1-13, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Vogler, Sabine & Fischer, Stefan, 2020. "How to address medicines shortages: Findings from a cross-sectional study of 24 countries," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 124(12), pages 1287-1296.
    2. Vogler, Sabine, 2024. "Tackling medicine shortages during and after the COVID-19 pandemic: Compilation of governmental policy measures and developments in 38 countries," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    3. Said, André & Goebel, Ralf & Ganso, Matthias & Zagermann-Muncke, Petra & Schulz, Martin, 2018. "Drug shortages may compromise patient safety: Results of a survey of the reference pharmacies of the Drug Commission of German Pharmacists," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(12), pages 1302-1309.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Vogler, Sabine, 2024. "Tackling medicine shortages during and after the COVID-19 pandemic: Compilation of governmental policy measures and developments in 38 countries," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    2. Rozhin Doroudi & Pedro Sequeira & Stacy Marsella & Ozlem Ergun & Rana Azghandi & David Kaeli & Yifan Sun & Jacqueline Griffin, 2020. "Effects of trust-based decision making in disrupted supply chains," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(2), pages 1-21, February.
    3. Bocquet, François & Degrassat-Théas, Albane & Peigné, Jérôme & Paubel, Pascal, 2017. "The new regulatory tools of the 2016 Health Law to fight drug shortages in France," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 121(5), pages 471-476.
    4. Jonathan Minh Phuong & Jonathan Penm & Betty Chaar & Lachlan Daniel Oldfield & Rebekah Moles, 2019. "The impacts of medication shortages on patient outcomes: A scoping review," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(5), pages 1-17, May.
    5. Caijun Yang & Lina Wu & Wenfang Cai & Wenwen Zhu & Qian Shen & Zongjie Li & Yu Fang, 2016. "Current Situation, Determinants, and Solutions to Drug Shortages in Shaanxi Province, China: A Qualitative Study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(10), pages 1-16, October.
    6. Josephine Walker & Betty B Chaar & Numa Vera & Alvish S Pillai & Jessy S Lim & Lisa Bero & Rebekah J Moles, 2017. "Medicine shortages in Fiji: A qualitative exploration of stakeholders’ views," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(6), pages 1-16, June.
    7. András Fittler & Róbert György Vida & Valter Rádics & Lajos Botz, 2018. "A challenge for healthcare but just another opportunity for illegitimate online sellers: Dubious market of shortage oncology drugs," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(8), pages 1-17, August.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0174556. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.