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NEW ORLEANS — Less than two weeks before a controversial Louisiana law reclassifying common pregnancy care pills as controlled dangerous substances takes effect, doctors are trying to prepare for what delays in accessing life-saving medication could mean.
In one New Orleans-area hospital, they are already practicing timed drills , running from delivery rooms to the locked medicine cabinet where controlled substances are stored, to see how long it will take. In one recent drill, it took more than two minutes for doctors and nurses to retrieve misoprostol for a pretend patient who was bleeding out.
“Every second counts,” a doctor involved in the drill told the Illuminator. The OB-GYN asked to not be identified because she did not have permission from the hospital to speak to the media. “ Two minutes could leave a massive hemorrhage requiring additional medications, need for blood transfusion and even the need for additional surgery.”
When the law goes into effect Oct. 1, misoprostol will be removed from her hospital’s postpartum hemorrhage carts that are wheeled into delivery rooms for easy access, she said. Instead, the drugs will be stored in a passcode-protected dispensing system centrally located in the labor and delivery unit, not in proximity to patient rooms.