Comprehensive Literature Review about Drug Shortages in the Canadian Hospital's Pharmacy Supply Chain

Abstract

Pharmacies play a central role between the manufacturers and patients because they ensure that patients access their required medications. In health facilities, pharmacies receive drugs from manufacturers and then sell them to patients as per their demand. This paper will cover the drug shortage in the Canadian hospital pharmacy supply chain, which is described as a situation in which the total supply of regulated drugs fails to meet the projected or current demand at the patient level. It can adversely delay or compromise medical procedures, drug therapy and result in medication errors. One of the key priorities of any health care system is to secure the supply of medications; and drug shortages can be linked to a complex combination of factors. These factors include increasing demand, regulatory issues, and inventory issues. The Proposed Methodology is a literature review which is conducted through search engines such as Google Scholar. The search is driven by keywords, phrases, and terms such as drug shortage in Canada, so this research entails a literature review of drug shortage in the Canadian Hospital's Pharmacy Supply Chain.