Table 4.
Risk assessment in medicine shortages.
| Selected survey questions and answers | Number of responses | % |
|---|---|---|
| Are you aware of any risk assessment procedures that can be used to mitigate medicine shortages? (answered “YES”) | 21 | 61.7 |
| The type of risk assessment: | ||
| FMEA | 9 | 26.4 |
| HFMEA | 5 | 14.7 |
| HACCP | 5 | 14.7 |
| RCA | 8 | 23.5 |
| Other | 2 | 5.8 |
| Where does risk assessment take place | ||
| Hospital pharmacy | 9 | 26.5 |
| Community pharmacy | 2 | 5.8 |
| Wholesaler facility | 3 | 8.8 |
| Healthcare authority | 2 | 5.8 |
| Are you able to describe the steps of the risk assessment procedures you are familiar with? (answered “YES”) | 18 | 52.9 |
| Do you implement risk assessment in your daily work? (answered “YES”) | 15 | 44.1 |
| Are you conducting risk assessment within multidisciplinary teams? (answer “YES”) | 12 | 35.3 |
| The type of professions included in the multidisciplinary team: | ||
| Physician | 7 | 20.6 |
| Pharmacist | 6 | 17.6 |
| Nurse | 4 | 11.7 |
| Quality control/procurement department | 7 | 20.6 |
| Answered “YES”, Number of responses | % | |
| Is there a defined act stipulating the implementation of risk assessment during medicine shortages embedded within legislation in your country? | 5 | 14.7 |
| Are you aware of any other legislation which is to be implemented in the near future in your country? | 4 | 11.7 |
| Are you able to say how long risk assessment related to medicine shortages has been implemented in your country? | 8 | 23.5 |
| Are you aware of any initiative for the implementation of risk assessment related to medicine shortages expected to take place in the near future in your country? | 7 | 20.6 |
| Are there any published, governmental or non-governmental documents on applied risk assessment in your country? | 12 | 35.3 |
| Are there any published governmental or non-governmental documents dedicated to studying ways to reduce the impact of medicine shortages? Specifically, any documents related to applied risk assessment measures as a mitigation strategy in your country? | 5 | 14.7 |
| Are risk assessment procedures part of the medicine shortage protocols/mitigation strategy in your workplace? | 10 | 29.4 |
| When conducted, are you obligated to report on the results of the risk assessment to official institutions inside your country? | 4 | 11.8 |
| When completed, do you share the outcomes of the performed risk assessment for a specific medicine with other stakeholders in your country (such as manufacturers, health authorities, national/private health-insurance funds)? | 6 | 17.6 |
| Do you perform risk assessment together with other medicine shortage mitigation strategies? | 7 | 20.6 |
| According to your professional experience, have you been able to mitigate medicine shortages successfully with risk assessment procedures? | 15 | 44.1 |
| Do you keep records on how quickly you can manage risk assessment when a medicine shortage abruptly occurs? | 3 | 8.8 |
| Do you find risk assessment useful as a medicine shortage mitigation strategy? | 29 | 85.3 |
Due to rounding, some totals may not correspond with the sum of the separate figures.
FMEA, Failure Mode and Effect Analysis; HFMEA, Healthcare Failure Mode and Effect Analysis; HACCP, Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points; RCA, root cause analysis.