How Nashville hospitals are handling IV, dialysis fluid shortage after Hurricane Helene

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Source: Tennessean
Author: Kirsten Fiscus
Date: November 14, 2024

Hospitals across the country are conserving crucial fluids after a North Carolina supplier's operations were hampered after Hurricane Helene's floods swept through the area.

Baxter International supplied about 60% of the nation's IV fluids, and also supplied dialysis solutions to many medical centers.

The sudden drop in supply sent hospitals scrambling to reschedule elective surgeries and searching for fluids elsewhere. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a plan to import overseas products and temporary policies for facilities to compound certain fluid solutions to supplement the supply.

Nashville and Middle Tennessee's hospitals are no different, assessing their supply sometimes daily and making contingency plans in the meantime.

After nearly a month, Baxter employees returned at full-strength this week, the company said in a news release. A temporary bridge has allowed the company to ship out more than 600 truckloads of products, and a second temporary bridge was expected to be completed early this month.

"Our goal is to begin restarting North Cove production as soon as possible and in phases by the end of this year," Baxter said in a news release Monday. "We do not yet have a timeline for when we expect production to be fully restored to pre-hurricane levels."

Supply will continue to be slow. Here's how Nashville hospitals are handling the shortage.

Emergency, lifesaving surgeries priority at VA

The VA Tennessee Valley Healthcare System is monitoring its supply daily, Aaron Grobengieser, associate director for resources, said by phone Tuesday.

Some elective procedures have been rescheduled to later dates, and care teams are assessing daily which surgeries need to be moved, Grobengieser said.

"No procedures are being canceled," he said. "Lifesaving and emergency surgeries are just the priority."

Grobengieser said the facilities are all set on supply for the next week or two and they continue to work with other facilities in the system to move fluids around.

"That's the upside of working in a large health care company," he said. "We can move product around between VA facilities."

While there's certainly been frustration for all parties — hospital staff working with less and searching for more, and patients facing delays in procedures — Grobengieser said he has not heard of any outrage from patients.

"The care teams are working very collaboratively, and veterans are a resilient bunch," Grobengieser said. "They're usually very happy to delay a procedure if their battle buddy needs a lifesaving one."

Veterans will hear from their care teams if there are any changes in planned procedures, Grobengieser said, but anyone with questions is encouraged to reach out to the VA for more information.

Diverse supply of IV fluids keeping Nashville hospitals going

The rest of Nashville's hospitals are seeing very little impact from the shortage.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center does not use Baxter as their primary supplier of IV fluids and recently switched their dialysis fluid supplier from the North Carolina plant to Illinois-based Medline Industries.

“We do not anticipate any issues with the hemodialysis fluid as it is made in Illinois,” Chief Supply Chain Officer Teresa Dail said.

Dail said their main concern are the dialysis fluids and they are working to shore up supplies to avoid a shortage.

"Currently we have two months of inventory available, so short term we are covered and will build our long-term plan as this evolves with our clinical leaders," Dail said.

Hospital spokesman Craig Boerner said Tuesday that the hospital is continuing "business as normal" for IV fluids from their supplier, ICU Medical.

"We are continuing to work with Supply Chain on peritoneal dialyses fluids," Boerner said.

David Leaverton, spokesperson for Ascension Saint Thomas, said their facilities have "a diverse supply" and the shortage is not having much impact.

TriStar Health is in a similar position.

"We have what we currently need," said Katie Dieterich, spokesperson for HCA Healthcare TriStar Division. "We’ll continue to monitor the situation, and we have contingency plans to help ensure we maintain adequate supplies."