60 percent of hospitals surveyed trashed scarce drugs

Amid ongoing shortages of critical drugs, 60 percent of hospital pharmacists surveyed said they've been forced to trash life-saving or expensive medications because of misguided government rules, a new poll shows. Discarded have been more than 100 different drugs, including 80 percent that are now or have been in short supply, and costly medications such as Velcade. That's according to a just-published survey of 715 hospital pharmacy directors, managers and clinicians nationwide who responded to queries by the Institute for Safe Medication Practices.