(COLORADO SPRINGS) – A medical device for diabetes called the Dexcom is facing a national shortage that’s now leaving diabetics in Southern Colorado frustrated.
A Dexcom is responsible for monitoring blood glucose levels for both Type One and Type Two diabetes, and it has saved many lives.
“It messes up things at the clinic with my endocrinologist because she’s not getting the data that we need. So, she was very frustrated at that appointment, which… it’s things like that that make me understand this is not a game,” said Raheem Seriki, a Type One diabetes patient.
For thousands of people across the country, access to the Dexcom G7 sensor is strained because of a supply shortage.
“With the Dexcom, I get a little bit of a break because I can just look at the phone and be like, ‘okay, I’m fine,’ and it has alarms,” said Seriki.
He said he has been without his Dexcom for over two weeks because of the shortage and said he’s already seeing how it negativity impacts his health when he is not wearing it.
“I was asleep, and I didn’t answer my phone. So, my sister was calling me, Dad was calling, and everybody was trying to figure out what was wrong, and I was, I was just fine, but it’s the fact that I didn’t answer my phone,” he said.
When diabetics are not wearing a continuous glucose monitor, like the Dexcom, they have to resort to finger pricking, a painful process.
“You can see all the holes, you can see everything, and you have to alternate. You can’t use the same finger every time. So, the issue with that is like, when I go shower, you can like made the raw skin,” he added.
Finding a new supplier to get the Dexcom is a process easier said than done.
“Mom, she was like, ‘we could just transfer this to a different Walgreens,’ and I said ‘we can do that.’ So, we transferred into seven different Walgreens and, the same issue,” said Seriki.
Now, some patients in Colorado Springs are driving as far as Denver to track down a pharmacy with the device in stock.
“We do our best to get those prior authorizations done, to contact the companies, to fight for you, to get you the supplies. Not only that you need, but I believe that you deserve,” said Dr. La Tasha Bruner-Hill, a Nurse Practitioner with Abundance Health Care.
Dexcom issued a statement on the shortage:
Dexcom is committed to providing G7 sensors to our patients without interruption. Currently we are experiencing temporary delays in our supply chain which may lead to some pharmacies or DME distributors being on a backorder. We believe that most of these backorders will be addressed within 5-7 days.
Statement via Dexcom’s website
“Hopefully it is just a short-term, not a long-term thing that we will have to do because we see that if they have that CGM on, it’s more reliable,” said Dr. Bruner-Hill
In a post on Dexcom’s website, the company said if you are unable to get a sensor from your supplier due to the backorder, you should call their technical support at 1-844-607-8398 for assistance.
