The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Hurricane depletes IV fluid supplies
Factories hit hard, causing shortages during flu season
The country faces a shortage of fluids used to deliver medicine and treat dehydrated patients, which could leave hospitals scrambling as flu season in the state reaches its peak over the next few weeks.
Supplies of saline and nutrient solutions used to fill IV bags were already tight when Hurricane Maria cut power to manufacturing plants that make much of the U.S. supply in Puerto Rico.
The last of the three Baxter International factories on the island were reconnected just before Christmas, but intermittent power outages have kept the plants from resuming full production.
The shortage has left hospitals across the country scrambling to work around the lack of IV bags, especially as flu season ramps up.
“If we can’t support patients coming in emergency rooms who have the flu, more people are going to die,” predicts Deborah Pasko, director of medication safety and quality at the American Society of Health System Pharmacists, a professional group. “I see it as a crisis.”
So far health professionals have been able to find alternatives, training doctors and nurses on new procedures and options and attempting to secure fluids from secondary suppliers, according to the Associated Press.
In the Danbury area, hospitals have felt a disruption in their supply of IV bags, but have so far been able to push through, said Andrea Rynn, a representative of the Western Connecticut Health Network, which includes Danbury and New Milford hospitals.
“Due to the strength and breadth of our network pharmacy, materials management and dedicated staff, we have been able to work through any challenges,” Rynn said.
She was not able to say on Friday how low the supply had fallen in specific hospitals. But like other states, flu activity in Connecticut has been rising, which could exacerbate the shortage.
So far, there have been more than 1,000 confirmed flu cases in the state, according to the Connecticut Department of Health. Flu cases are expected to peak in
mid-February.
From Aug. 27 to Jan. 6, the DPH reported that 1,015 laboratory samples tested positive for the flu. A total of 456 patients have been hospitalized with laboratory-confirmed flu during the same period, 70 percent of whom are 65 years or older, DPH reports.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said last week it believes IV fluid shortages will start to ease over the next few weeks, but stressed that the production situation in Puerto Rico remains “fragile.”
Only a few other companies make those solutions, the AP reported, and supplies never fully recovered after a 2014 shortage of saline bags.
The FDA has been trying to boost supplies, giving two additional companies approval to start selling saline bags, likely within a couple of months. It also gave Baxter permission to temporarily import sterile fluids from six overseas factories.
Baxter says it’s been shipping those to U.S. hospitals since October, but hospital officials say that hasn’t been enough.
Nutrient solution bags, also in short supply, are needed for far fewer patients than saline, but there are few substitutes, said Connie Sullivan, head of research and innovation at the National Home Infusion Association.
Its members have been swapping products with other infusion services and even limiting the number of new patients they accept.
“I have never seen anything quite this bad,” Sullivan said.
Hospitals have been substituting pills for IV-administered drugs when possible, changing dosing schedules or injecting drugs directly into a vein, using what’s called IV push.
They’ve also been changing some procedures, like trying to switch people off IV bags as soon as possible and not starting patients on IV drips during surgery until it’s certain they are needed.