Hospitals have been compelled to innovate with new methods of hydrating sufferers and giving them drugs, after a key manufacturing unit that produces IV fluid luggage flooded throughout Hurricane Helene. (This story first aired on Morning Version on Nov. 7, 2024.)
AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
When Hurricane Helene made its technique to western North Carolina, it flooded a North Carolina plant that makes greater than 60% of the nation’s IV fluid luggage. Hospitals are nonetheless months of IV fluid shortages, and it is not clear when the plant will return to full manufacturing. So, as Jackie Fortier experiences, some hospitals are discovering new methods to get by.
JACKIE FORTIER, BYLINE: In late September, Hurricane Helene tore by the South, shocking residents like emergency room nurse Ashley Bunting.
ASHLEY BUNTING: I am from Florida initially, and I moved as much as the mountains considering, oh, I am by no means going to be impacted by a hurricane right here.
FORTIER: Bunting cares for sufferers at Mission Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina. It has been greater than a month, and the water popping out of the hospital faucets nonetheless is not protected to drink.
BUNTING: We’re sort of restricted to water bottles. We will not give our sufferers ice chips, like lots of them request.
FORTIER: And the IV fluids Bunting may use as an alternative are nonetheless in brief provide. Earlier than Hurricane Helene, one firm, Baxter, produced 1.5 million IV luggage at its North Carolina facility, greater than half of what U.S. hospitals use. However when the manufacturing unit flooded, manufacturing floor to a cease.
BUNTING: Perhaps getting 60% of our IV fluids from one single supply is not the neatest long-term plan.
FORTIER: The manufacturing unit has re-opened and is producing some IV luggage, however the earliest they’re going to begin to ship is late November. Greater than 1,000 miles north, in Presque Isle, Maine, Nurse Nicole Bridges can be dealing with the scarcity at AR Gould Hospital. She says they’re transitioning sufferers from IV antibiotics to oral antibiotic drugs earlier than they used to.
NICOLE BRIDGES: I believe the workaround proper now’s working very well. I do not know what it’ll appear like subsequent week or subsequent month.
FORTIER: Probably the most fragile sufferers at most hospitals are nonetheless getting drugs by way of IV, however some hospital directors see a chance within the scarcity. Dr. Sam Elgawly is with Inova Well being within the Washington D.C. space.
SAM ELGAWLY: How usually are we truly giving it greater than we have to? The place we simply – you already know, simply maintain it going as a result of a affected person’s within the hospital?
FORTIER: Of their 5 hospitals, they’ve slashed IV fluids by about 55%. However surgical demand will quickly go up. Sometimes, sufferers attempt to cram procedures in earlier than the insurance coverage cycle ends in December and deductibles reset. A method Inova is conserving IV luggage is by skipping further fluids with some drugs.
ELGAWLY: You’d do what’s referred to as push a medicine. You do not even want a bag in any respect. You simply give the remedy with out the bag. There was rising literature over the past 10 to twenty years that signifies possibly you needn’t use as a lot, and this accelerated our innovation and testing of that concept.
FORTIER: However some nurses say doing that may be extra labor intensive. Dr. Vince Inexperienced is with Pipeline Well being, a small hospital system within the Los Angeles space. They’re solely getting half the IV luggage they’d usually obtain.
VINCE GREEN: Each IV fluid bag that we are able to get, we’re buying and we’re conserving. We’re attempting to get our arms on every thing we are able to.
FORTIER: Inexperienced says medical workers are encouraging sufferers to drink Gatorade or water, as an alternative of defaulting to IVs for hydration. They usually make sure that to make use of up your entire bag earlier than beginning one other.
GREEN: If they arrive in with IV fluids that the paramedics have began, let’s proceed it. If it saves half a bag of fluids, so be it, nevertheless it provides up over time.
FORTIER: A few of these conservation measures may develop into everlasting. First, Dr. Inexperienced wish to see knowledge exhibiting that affected person outcomes aren’t affected. For now, a few of the new methods simply make sense to him.
GREEN: We needn’t have this a lot waste and replenish our landfills with stuff that, if we may cut back stuff, I believe it might be clever.
FORTIER: Inexperienced continues to be fearful for the close to future. They’re all the way down to a two-week provide, and respiratory virus season is simply across the nook.
RASCOE: That is reporter Jackie Fortier with our associate KFF Well being Information.
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