Drug Shortage Impacts Patient Receipt of Induction Treatment.

Objective: Examine the impact of the 2011 shortage of the drug cytarabine on patient receipt and timeliness of induction treatment for Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML).

Study Design: A retrospective cohort was utilized to examine odds of receipt of inpatient induction chemotherapy and time to first dose across major (N = 105) and moderate (N = 316) shortage time periods as compared to a nonshortage baseline (N = 1,147).

Data Collection/extraction Methods: De-identified patient data from 2008 to 2011 Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) were linked to 2007-2013 Medicare claims and 2007-2013 Hospital Characteristics.