TUPELO, Mississippi—North Mississippi Health Services recently launched a novel solution to drug shortages by transforming how the hospital gets medicine.

NMHS has partnered with On Demand Pharmaceuticals (ODP), an innovative technology company, to produce medicines on demand—whenever and wherever they are needed. On Dec. 18, doctors administered the first medications that were compounded in ODP’s new Shortage Response Pharmacy on Demand. 

Located on the hospital’s campus, the Shortage Response Pharmacy on Demand is a pilot project approved by the Mississippi Board of Pharmacy. The Shortage Response Pharmacy on Demand will compound generic sterile injectables that are critical to running a hospital. Shortages of these medicines have plagued health care systems for decades.

Shane Spees, NMHS president and chief executive officer, explains that the majority of generic medications are vulnerable to supply-chain disruptions if trade with India, China or Japan were interrupted. While shortages of active pharmaceutical ingredients remains a possibility, the ability to compound medications onsite reduces concern. Mitigating drug shortages costs American hospitals hundreds of millions of dollars per year.

The first medication compounded on North Mississippi Medical Center-Tupelo’s campus by ODP was lidocaine, a medication that has been on the drug shortage list for over a decade. Lidocaine is a critical medicine commonly used for numbing before a medical procedure. The medication was used in the care of a patient from Hamilton, Alabama, who was having a potentially lifesaving procedure.

“This is a historic day for North Mississippi Health Services and the entire country. As the first beta testing site in the nation, we can now produce shortage medicines ‘on the spot,’” Spees said. “This capability allows us to ensure that our patients get the right medicine, while helping us minimize the time and expense caused by shortages and associated price hikes.”

Spees says compounding medications on demand aligns with the NMHS mission to improve the health of people in this region. “This is one major step in that direction, as we redesign health care for the benefit of those we serve,” he said.

“As of this moment, there are hundreds of everyday drugs hospitals need to care for patients from fighting simple infections to critical medications used in childbirth that are in dangerously short supply. It is vital that we continue to develop domestic resiliency to prepare for this growing need and whatever the future may hold as access to international supply faces growing uncertainty,” said ODP chief executive officer Rear Admiral James Hancock, MD, U.S. Navy retired. “On Demand Pharmaceuticals is working to provide safe, agile and high-quality solutions to these problems in a way that no one else in the U.S. is doing. We are reinventing the way medicines are produced, maximizing agility and enabling providers to optimize patient care. Our efforts will begin to secure the nation’s access to critical medicines. We are honored to be starting that here and partnering with NMHS to support their mission of serving this community.”

No controlled substances will be compounded or stored in the Shortage Response Pharmacy on Demand.

North Mississippi Health Services provides acute, diagnostic, therapeutic and emergency services through its flagship hospital, North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo, and community hospitals in Amory, Eupora, Iuka, Pontotoc and West Point, Mississippi, and Hamilton, Alabama. The health care system also includes a regional network of more than 60 primary and specialty clinics, nursing homes and telehealth services. NMHS serves 24 counties in north Mississippi and northwest Alabama.