Investigation and Reason Analysis of Drug Shortage in 78 Medical Institutions from Sichuan Province / 中国药房

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE： To investigate the situation and reasons of drug shortage in some medical institutions from Sichuan province. METHODS： A questionnaire survey was conducted among 78 medical institutions in Sichuan province by stratified random sampling. The situation of drug shortage were collected from Jan. 2015 to Jun. 2017， mainly including the basic information of medical institutions， drug shortage situation， specific drug shortage information and the reasons for drug shortage. Descriptive analysis of the information collected by the questionnaire was carried out， and Logistic regression analysis of the data by SPSS 20.0 software was adopted to find out the key factors affecting drug shortage. RESULTS & CONCLUSIONS： Totally 78 medical institutions include 13 third-level hospitals， 22 second-level hospitals and 43 primary medical institutions （10 community health service centers， 33 township health centers）. A total of 78 questionnaires were sent out， and the recovery rate and effective rate both were 100％. Among them， 68 medical institutions reported 206 shortage drugs totally， involving 240 specifications. The prices of more than 88.34％ of the shortage drug were less than 50 yuan. Main types of shortage drugs included anti-infective drugs， central nervous system drugs and cardiovascular system drugs， and most of them were purchased directly through internet. The proportion of temporary shortage （shortage time＜3 months） and long-term shortage （shortage time＞12 months） was relatively high （more than 68％ in total）. Drug supply and medical institutions’own factors were two main causes of drug shortage. Logistic regression analysis showed that main factors affecting the time of drug shortage were hospital drug purchase process， location of medical institution and drug purchase price. The main factors affecting the specifications of drug shortage in medical institutions were the process of drug purchase， the limitation of hospital purchase catalogue， primary or non-primary medical institution， comprehensive or specialized hospitals. It is suggested that medical institutions in this region can reduce the drug shortage caused by their own reasons by building a platform for drug information management， optimizing drug purchase catalogues and plans， strengthening the management of pharmacy inventory and establishing a regulatory system for distribution enterprises.