Pharmacy teams know the feeling of a drug shortage that has their team scrambling and working late on a Friday afternoon. Since 2019, hospitals have more than doubled the staff hours and dollars spent trying to manage drug shortages. It’s one of the many reasons why drug shortages persist as the number one challenge for hospital pharmacies every year.
While drug shortages may never disappear – hospitals can improve their preparation and response. And, with most pharmacy teams reporting over 10 active shortages impacting operations at any given time, it’s no surprise that 25% of hospital pharmacies list shortage management software in their top 3 technology initiatives for 2025.
The Most Impactful Features of Drug Shortage Tools
Drug shortage management software can help reclaim control in a chaotic situation by predicting shortages before they hit, organizing communications in one place, and having a response plan ready to go. Here’s how:
Predict Each Drug Shortage Weeks or Months Ahead of Time
Traditionally, pharmacy teams don’t get much of a warning before a drug shortage hits, forcing last-minute plans to limit inventory usage, swap NDCs, and transfer stock across sites.
What if you knew it was coming 30, 60, even 90 days in advance?
With shortage management software, forecasting shortages becomes a reality by monitoring market-wide signals your hospital can’t see – like fulfillment delays, demand surges, or unusual usage patterns across thousands of hospitals. You can bring early warning signals to your recurring shortage meetings, so you can coordinate with time on your side.
Know Which Shortages Matter So You Can Act Fast
Not all shortages carry the same weight. One impacts a critical drug with limited alternatives, while another involves a low-use product you can easily substitute with a therapeutic alternative.
To know which shortages will impact your operations and patient care most, you need to see:
- Exactly how much inventory you have
- How fast you’re using it
- What alternatives are available
And you don’t need this just for one shortage or one site, but across all sites in your system for every active drug shortage.
See System-Wide Inventory Levels
Your health system may have enough inventory collectively, but if you can’t see it across the enterprise, you can’t act on it. Drug shortage management software helps you:
- Identify where inventory is depleting fastest
- Spot excess stock
- Plan operational adjustments across your network
This way, every unit is used wisely, and you avoid site-level crises that could have been resolved with a system-level view.
Avoid Losing Critical Shortage Plans in Email Threads
Many pharmacy teams still manage shortage responses via spreadsheets, email threads, or scattered chat messages, where critical updates get lost and plans quickly become outdated.
Centralized communication that lives in the same place as your shortage predictions and inventory data changes this dynamic. You can:
- Keep communications organized by medication
- Keep current plans and status updates clear
- Create a living repository of historical mitigation plans to reuse for similar shortages in the future
It’s a way to ensure that even when team members change or when you face the same shortage again a year later, your hard-won knowledge isn’t lost.
The ShortageCheck Advantage
ShortageCheck is the only shortage management software that uses real-time purchasing data from over 2,500 acute care hospitals to monitor market signals and predict shortages up to 90 days in advance. It transforms your shortage management from a reactive firefight into a proactive, strategic process.
Ready to see how your pharmacy can move from reactive to prepared with ShortageCheck? Request a demo to see how you can prepare for shortages with enough time and the right insights on your side.