Worcester Business Journal

12 Worcester Business Journal | November 26, 2018 | wbjournal.com tion found sterility problems at a Pfizer lab in Kansas causing a major opioid producer to stop operations. e drop in production was so severe the American Medical Association in June said drug shortages had become an urgent public health crisis. e shortages extended even to everyday patient care products, including sterile intravenous saline or other fluids, the AMA said. "e fact that drug shortages wors- While officials battle addiction issues, hospitals are running short on painkillers for patients recovering from procedures F O C U S H E A L T H C A R E M ost headlines or strug- gles relating to opioids in recent years deal with opioid abuse and the oen deadly con- sequences. But hospitals are facing an- other opioid challenge: ey have barely enough injectable opioid painkillers to give patients prescribed the drugs. "We've never seen anything like the last couple of years, even close to that," said Roland Bercume, the senior direc- tor of pharmacy for UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester. "It's real, and we've lived it and felt it; and we feel like right now we're getting a handle on it," Bercume said. "It's important to let the public know that we've managed this, and it hasn't affected patient care." Still, those who oversee the use of opioid painkillers – commonly used drugs including oxycodone, codeine and morphine – say hospitals are barely getting by, thanks to planning in ad- vance for which drugs may be nearing depletion. e American Medical Association calls the shortage a result of damage to critical drug production facilities in Puerto Rico from a hurricane last year. ose storms came just months aer the U.S. Food and Drug Administra- Neil Gilchrist, the manager of pharmacy operations at UMass Memorial Medical Center, is among those working to make sure the hospital has enough opioid painkillers on hand. An opioid shortage BY GRANT WELKER Worcester Business Journal News Editor Prescribed opioids Millions of opioid prescriptions are made each year. The most commonly prescribed in America are: Source: IMS Health (2013) Hydrocodone (Vicodin) 127,859,000 Oxycodone with acetaminophen (generic Percocet) 32,962,000 Oxycodone HCL (generic OxyContin) 16,440,000 Acetaminophen with codeine 11,225,000 Morphine sulfate 9,658,000 Fentanyl 6,468,000 OxyContin (brand name) 5,659,000 Methadone 3,860,000 Hydromorphone HCL (generic Dilaudid) 3,587,000 Oxymorphone HCL 756,000 Drug Prescriptions PHOTOS/MATT WRIGHT

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