Hurricane Helene left a devastating mark on much of western North Carolina, but the storm’s long-term impact extends well beyond the region — including the Duke University Health System.
Due to damage inflicted upon health care manufacturer Baxter International’s North Cove facility in Marion, N.C., Duke Health is experiencing a shortage of intravenous (IV) fluids and other specialty sterile fluids.
“Our teams have been working to assess inventory, deploy conservation strategies and triage future distribution in an equitable manner across the health system,” wrote Gregory Pauly, group president of Acute Care Services for DUHS, president of Duke University Hospital and vice dean of clinical and academic integration of the School of Medicine, in a Monday email to The Chronicle.
During this shortage, DUHS has had to make various changes to protocol in order to conserve IV fluids. In an Oct. 4 statement from Baxter, the company outlined many helpful strategies to conserve these fluids, such as considering oral hydration strategies as alternatives, limiting the time that sterile fluids are used in procedures, using smaller volume bags where possible and more.
In his statement, Pauly highlighted some actions that DUHS has already enacted.
“At this time, we are making case-by-case assessments of our ability to safely perform certain surgeries and procedures going into the weekend and next week,” he wrote.
This shortage is not unique to Duke, or even N.C. hospital systems in general. Per the Oct. 4 statement, the affected manufacturing facility produces about 60% of North America’s IV solutions, and hospitals nationwide are “anticipating significant shortages” of Baxter IV fluids.
Baxter is working to restore its North Cove facility to previous production levels, but it is still working to recover from storm damage.
In an Oct. 9 statement released by Baxter, the company stated that it is “increasing the current U.S. allocation levels of [its] highest demand IV fluids for direct customers from 40% to 60%, and for distributors from 10% to 60%.” The company pointed to children’s hospitals as an exception, which have been increased to 100% allocation levels due to their “vulnerable patient population.” Baxter is aiming to restore customers to full allocation levels by the end of 2024.
In the meantime, DUHS and many other hospital systems nationwide are forced to adapt to these IV and sterile fluid shortages.
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Vikram Sambasivan is a Trinity first-year and a staff reporter for the news department.