The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists is taking biweekly surveys of pharmacy leaders across the country on how their supply chains have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The second survey, conducted between March 23 and March 26, was released April 3 and details how hospital pharmacy supply has changed since the first survey, conducted March 9- March 15.
The first-round survey had 403 respondents, and the second-round survey had 382 respondents, both from hospitals of various sizes around the country.
5 takeaways from the second-round survey:
- Forty-two percent of respondents said the disruption in supplies of surgical masks was either major or moderate, meaning they either had to go without masks or use alternatives. That's a 27 percentage point increase from the first survey.
- Ninety-five percent of respondents said their organizations have a plan to conserve medical masks, up from 84 percent in the first survey. Eighty-one percent say they've already had to implement the plan.
- Among the respondents whose organizations perform sterile compounding activities, 58 percent said they've had to reuse masks for sterile compounding, and 6 percent are using non-FDA approved masks.
- Twenty-eight percent of respondents have requested personal protective equipment from the national stockpile, and of those, 53 percent received the requested supplies.
- Thirty-three percent of respondents reported higher acquisition costs for masks compared to December 2019, up 14 percent from the first-round survey.