Hospitals across Virginia are taking steps to conserve their supply of IV fluids after Hurricane Helene damaged one of the country’s primary suppliers.
The storm damaged Baxter International’s manufacturing facility in Marion, North Carolina, about 35 miles outside of Asheville. The vendor is responsible for about 60% of the nation’s IV fluids supply.
UVA Health University Medical Center has postponed some nonurgent surgeries through Friday in order to help protect the hospital's supply of the specially formulated liquids that are often given to patients before, during and after surgery to prevent dehydration. UVA Health said elective surgeries are also being rescheduled at its hospitals in Culpeper, Haymarket and Manassas.
Teams from the hospitals are contacting patients to reschedule their procedures once IV supplies become more available.
UVA Health is one of six Level I trauma centers providing care in Virginia. The hospital said it’s taking the temporary measures to ensure care for its patients in critical condition.
“We’re doing our very best to ensure that all our patients continue to receive the best care possible,” UVA Health spokesperson Josh Barney said. He said the hospital has “doubled down on efforts to prevent unnecessary waste of the IV products.”
In the Richmond area, VCU Medical Center and Chippenham Hospital, which also operate Level I trauma centers, have not canceled surgeries — but are monitoring their IV fluid supplies.
Inova Health Systems operates another one of the state’s Level I trauma centers in Fairfax and has also been impacted by supply chain disruptions of IV fluids. Inova spokesperson Tracy Connell said the hospital had reduced its IV fluid usage by 28% and would continue to carefully manage its supply.
Other Virginia hospitals — including the Central Virginia Veterans Affairs Health Care System, HCA Virginia, Mary Washington Hospital, Sentara and VCU Health — said their services haven’t been disrupted, but they are taking steps to conserve their existing supply of IV fluids. Both Sentara and Mary Washington have contracts with manufacturers other than Baxter that help supplement their stock.
Tim Jennings, senior vice president and chief pharmacy officer at Sentara, said the hospital system has a 30- to 60-day supply of dialysis products on hand. The hospital has begun using alternative products and implementing conservation measures to protect its IV fluid cache.
Baxter International said it has been making “steady progress on cleanup and remediation” at its North Carolina facility, but it could be as long as two weeks before the company will have updates about when it expects to resume production.
The IV supplier, which put shipments on hold last week to assess damages, said it resumed shipments of IV fluids processed before the storm to hospitals and dialysis centers this week.
Baxter also said it was ramping up production at its other facilities around the world to help meet supply needs in the United States. Those supplies are expected to supplement needs through October.
