Counting the cost of critical antibiotic shortages

In recent years, medicine shortages in healthcare services have become a common occurrence and pose significant challenges to prescribers and pharmacists. Reasons for medicine shortages are many, including manufacturing issues, product recalls or unavailability of raw materials. Results of a point prevalence survey of medicine shortages in Australian hospitals conducted in April 2017 revealed that 95% of participating hospitals experienced a shortage in the preceding 12 months and the most frequently reported shortages were antimicrobials. The prescribing patterns and economic consequences of these antimicrobial shortages in Australian hospitals are ill-defined. Supplies of piperacillin/tazobactam and gentamicin, two frequently used antibiotics, were interrupted to Australian hospitals in September and October 2017, respectively. We evaluated the impact of these shortages on hospital antibiotic use and associated costs.