Physician approaches to drug shortages: Results of a national survey of pediatric hematologist/oncologists

AIM: To evaluate personnel involved in scarce drug prioritization and distribution and the criteria used to inform drug distribution during times of shortage among pediatric hematologists/oncologists. METHODS: email to evaluate personnel involved in scarce drug prioritization and distribution and criteria used to inform scarce drug distribution. One fourth of respondents did not know who makes decisions about shortage drug distribution at their institution. The highest priority criterion among respondents was use of the shortage drug for curative, rather than palliative intent and lowest priority criterion was order of arrival or first-come first-served. CONCLUSION: Despite pediatric hematology/oncology physicians and patients being heavily impacted by drug shortages, institutional processes for handling shortages are lacking. There is significant disparity between how decisions for distribution of shortage drugs are currently made and how study respondents felt those decisions should be made. An institution-based, and more importantly, a societal approach to drug shortages is necessary to reconcile these disparities.