Hospitals try to cope with drug shortage

The medical industry has struggled in recent years with ways to combat drug scarcity, and now, patient health is thought to be in danger.

Hospitals are being forced to use old-fashioned methods to track their stock of drugs in short supply, according to Fox News. Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit has resorted to using old fashioned paper spreadsheets to track its orders because the automated systems don't work if it is uncertain when the next supply of drugs will come in.

The hospital's medicines cost an estimated $100 million a year and are tracked by automated systems that allow for quick reorder when the supply is low, but this efficiency has been been lost as staff members have switched to the paper records, Fox stated.

"Now we have to go through the pharmacy and count those drugs on a daily basis to make sure we don't run out," said Ed Szandzik, director of pharmacy services at the hospital for over a decade.

Congress recently pushed to end shortages in the United States of more than 100 drugs, many of which are vital for cancer patients, Bloomberg reported. The House and Senate are working together to merge bills passed recently to require drugmakers to notify the Food and Drug Administration of when they would see a disruption in drug manufacturing.