Oklahoma City Doctors, Ambulance Services Deal with Nationwide Drug Shortage

Adrianna Iwasinski, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- A local ambulance service said a nationwide shortage of epinephrine and other injectable drugs had not affected emergency care of its patients.

Epinephrine syringes are used to help treat heart attacks and are carried in all ambulances.

EMSA's clinical services director Jason Likens said it had an ample supply of epinephrine and the nationwide shortage had not impacted patient care.

"Based on the information we've received from the manufacturers, we believe we have sufficient supply to bridge the gap till the next shipment," Likens said.

There was also a shortage of succinylcholine and propofol, commonly used anesthetics. A manufacturer slowdown decreased supplies across the country over the summer.

According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration website, the shortage first began last year. The FDA blamed the problem on a limited number of companies making sterile injectable products. There have also been several recalls and halts in production due to quality controls.

Oklahoma City anesthesiologist Dr. Bill Kinsinger said he has not had to cancel or change any of his surgeries so far, but he said he is keenly aware of the shortage, especially the low supply of succinylcholine. He said it is a critical situation.

"There's no real substitute for succinylcholine, and if we absolutely didn't have that drug available, that could be a life or death situation," Kinsinger said. "Because that is a drug that we use in virtually every anesthetic if we don't have it, we can't do those anesthetics, which means we can't do the surgeries."

For those who have scheduled surgeries on the horizon, Dr. Kinsinger had one word of advice.

"Make sure that the facility you're at that the people that are providing your care are the most highly trained individuals and aren't going to allow themselves to get into a situation where all of the sudden they're halfway into the procedure and don't have the right drugs," Kinsinger said.

Learn more about the drug short on the FDA's website