From: Faith Rhoades
Sent: Friday, September 28, 2018 12:56:18 PM
Subject: Re: drug shortages: lidocaine and bicarb

Megan - please blast this on Behalf of HH Pharmacy

Faith Rhoades
Sent from my iPhone

On Sep 28, 2018, at 7:57 AM, David Collette  wrote:

I just put the following announcement on Pulse and will ask Faith Rhoades to forward to the medical staff:

Please note these two major drug shortages:

• Lidocaine injection (plain without epi ) - both 1% and 2% strengths are on backorder ; bupivacaine is an option, but has also been on and off backorder recently.

• Sodium bicarb injection - both the amps and the vials are on backorder . We currently have a 3-4 week supply with no end to the backorder in sight. Please remember that sodium bicarb is only to be given in situations (including Code-0s) where the patient has DOCUMENTED metabolic acidosis, as approved by P&T. We have a plentiful supply of oral sodium bicarb.

The shortage of lidocaine and other local anesthetics may affect numerous procedural areas. We do have lidocaine WITH EPI , but very little of the plain lidocaine . Our wholesaler has a small amount of ROPIVACAINE , but it probably will be unavailable soon. We have ordered what we can to keep our procedural areas supplied, but we estimate that we have a 2-week supply of local anesthetics on hand. Our buyer is checking with other McKesson distribution centers to see if they have any in stock, but no luck thus far.

As for sodium bicarb injection, we need to ensure that only those patients with a DOCUMENTED metabolic acidosis be given IV sodium bicarb. We have plenty of oral tablets, but our IV supply will be exhausted in 3-4 weeks if we don't receive any more.

DAVID
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David R. Collette, Pharm.D., FASHP
Operations Manager, Professional Services