Local hospitals impacted by IV shortage caused by Hurricane Helene

WASHINGTON — Hospitals across the country are trying to come up with solutions, in response to a national IV fluid shortage.

IV bags, used to mix and deliver liquid medications or salt water to patients through an intravenous line, and are considered an essential resource. 

In a statement on their website, the company wrote that they're "working around the clock in close coordination with local, state and federal officials to assess the extent of the damage and implement a plan to bring the plant back online as quickly as possible to help mitigate supply disruption to patients".

According to the American Hospital Association, Baxter International's plant in Marion, North Carolina, produces about 60% of the IV solutions used across the United States every day.

That's approximately 1.5 million bags, according to AHA.

We have resumed shipments to hospitals and dialysis patients after the temporary hold last week, based on allocations as previously communicated. We have moved finished goods from our North Cove site that were not impacted by the storm and are inspecting other finished goods onsite. This inventory will be used to support current allocations in the short term. Several of our global plants are scaling and ramping production to help meet U.S. needs, and we expect to receive product from these sources throughout the month of October. We will communicate adjustments to allocations within the next two weeks as we assess timing of inbound products and shipments.

Unfortunately, we are seeing an impact here locally. 

UVA Health told WUSA9 that they are postponing some of the Tier 1 (non-urgent) elective surgeries on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, to help conserve supplies and minimize disruptions to patient care.

According to a spokesperson for UVA, they've also doubled down on efforts to prevent any unnecessary waste of the IV products. 

"As the area’s only level 1 trauma hospital, the medical center is taking these measures to ensure care for its most critical patients," they wrote in a statement to WUSA9 Tuesday afternoon.

At UVA Health’s hospitals in Culpeper, Haymarket and Manassas, some tier 1 (non-urgent) elective surgeries are also being rescheduled. Those facilities will continue to evaluate their surgical schedules daily to determine which procedures need to be rescheduled, according to UVA Health.

UVA Health says patients will receive a call from representatives if their elective surgeries need to be postponed, adding that any postponed surgeries will be rescheduled as soon as possible, once the critical IV supplies become more available.

Meanwhile Inova, sent WUSA9 the following statement:

Inova, like many health systems across the country, is impacted by supply chain disruptions caused by Hurricane Helene, including the nationwide shortage of IV fluids. With patient safety as our first priority, we have robust resource stewardship and care delivery plans in place, and we are working to ensure minimal impact to patient care. We are carefully managing our resources and using safe, effective alternatives to IV fluids when appropriate.

Through careful resource management, in less than one week we have safely reduced usage of IV fluids by 28%. Our teams are meeting daily to review in order to safely and strategically manage our supply of IV fluid through the duration of the disruption.

In a letter to President Joe Biden, AHA President and Chief Executive Officer asked for the FDA to declare a shortage, for some of the rules to be waived, to allow health systems to prepare sterile IV solutions in their own pharmacies, among other things.

You can read the full letter here.