(1095) Evaluating the Perceived Impact of Drug Shortages on Patient Care by Patients in a Community-based Pharmacy Chain

Objectives: The primary objective of this study is to determine the percentage of patients of a community-based pharmacy chain that were affected by a drug shortage. A secondary objective of this study is to determine the clinical, financial, and emotional impact of drug shortages on patients of a community-based pharmacy chain. Also, another secondary objective is to evaluate the demographics of the patients who were affected by a drug shortage. Drug shortages affect all aspects of the healthcare system and can be detrimental to patient outcomes. Patients are emotionally, financially, and clinically impacted when they are unable to obtain their medications during a drug shortage. With increasing demands for specific classes of medications along with supply and manufacturing issues, drug shortages can be a complex issue to navigate. Since 2022, there have been several classes of medications that went on backorder. Most notably, the GLP-1 receptor agonists and stimulants have been challenging for patients to find. According to an article published by Frontiers, current studies surrounding drug shortages have found that drug shortages give rise to patient complaints, frustration, anger, dissatisfaction, decreased adherence, and psychological effects. (Shukar, 2021). While many attempts have been made to evaluate the impacts of drug shortages from a healthcare administrative perspective, limited studies are available that evaluate the impacts of drug shortages from a patient perspective.

Methods: This will be a multi-center, survey-based study. Participants for this study will include patients who fill prescriptions within the Illinois locations of a nationwide supermarket-based community pharmacy chain. Patients also must currently be taking and have a fill history including a GLP-1 receptor agonist or stimulant. Patients who are included in this study will be asked to complete a Qualtrics survey via a QR code provided to them by their local supermarket pharmacy staff. The pharmacy teams who will be distributing this survey will be trained prior to beginning this study. All patients who approach the pharmacy counter will be given the QR code to complete the survey by the pharmacy staff. If a patient is unable to utilize the QR code provided, a paper copy of the survey will be available for completion. Patients who qualify will be asked a series of questions regarding the clinical, emotional, and economic hardships they may have faced because of their medication being placed on a backorder. Questions will require a response of “yes” or “no,” or will require the participant to rank the significance of the financial, clinical, and emotional impact they experienced on a scale of 1 to 3 throughout a drug shortage. Descriptive statistics will be used to summarize patient responses to survey questions. Internal software will be utilized to track the number of surveys completed and the frequency of answers being chosen from specific questions within the survey. The results of the surveys will then be used to measure the various impacts patients may have faced during a drug shortage.

Results: In progress

Conclusions: The hope is to increase awareness of the impacts drug shortages can have on patient care to community pharmacists. By drawing more attention to the impacts that come with a drug shortage, community pharmacists may standardize the process to educate and assist patients who are experiencing the effects of a drug shortage.