Approved Hospital Formulary
Add Formweb to your mobile device
Approved Hospital Formulary
3/10/26 Azithromycin Shortage
March 10, 2026
We have approximately 15-20 doses of azithromycin injection remaining on hand. Please see instructions below from AMT.
Good afternoon,
We are ok with using IV azithromycin at HH Main until inventory is exhausted. At that point, we would recommend PO azithromycin or an alternative agent (doxycycline IV/PO or levofloxacin (IV/PO) for adult patients at HH Main.
If the backorder committee sees a need for restriction based on quantity available/shortage duration, we would recommend the following:
- Restrict IV azithromycin to the following patient populations during the shortage:
- OB patients requiring non-elective/unscheduled C-section
- Pediatric patients who cannot tolerate PO azithromycin
- IF azithromycin IV inventory is completely exhausted at HH W&C then an alternative for OB patients requiring non-elective/unscheduled C-section would be clarithromycin 500 mg PO x 1 given 30 minutes prior to skin incision (reference: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0244266).
- For adult patients who receive an order for azithromycin IV during the shortage, pharmacists may take one of the following actions:
- Automatically change to PO azithromycin (may tag order as form sub for IV azithromycin shortage) or
- Reach out to prescribing physician to recommend alternative agent (doxycycline IV/PO or levofloxacin IV/PO)
Thanks,
Madeline