Warren County EMS is having trouble getting Epinephrine and is having to borrow from the hospital.

At the recent county Budget and Finance Committee meeting, EMS director Preston Denney discussed the Ambulance Service budget and was asked by Commissioner Tommy Savage if there was anything he was having trouble getting. Denney says they are waiting for three different orders of Epi.

“One of the big ones we are having a lot of issues with is Epi. We use that on our cardiac calls. We made three orders and one was in December, one was in January, and I believe the other was in March. We have yet to receive the December order. We have actually been having to go through the hospital and try to get Epi from them and right now we owe them. We just can’t get it,” said Denney. 

As a last result, Denney says they could mix medication, but he would prefer not to.

“We can mix it, but it makes it a lot harder and puts a lot more stuff at risk. You know, human error doing something wrong,” said Denney. 

One reason they are having trouble getting the medication is because the company they order from is putting everything on allocation. 

“Right now we can get it from the hospital, but the problem with it is a lot of these drug companies are putting everything on allocation so if you don’t buy it every month they won’t let you have it. So when you call and order something and you haven’t bought it in the last three months, they will say you haven’t bought it in three months so you go behind everybody,” said Denney.

He says he called the company and was informed his first two orders should be filled sometime this month. 

“It is really the only medicine right now we are having to wait on,” said Denney.