CRISIS/HEALTHCARE/PUERTO RICO: “The U.S. is facing a nationwide shortage of intravenous bags just as flu cases accelerate, forcing many hospitals to use more time-consuming ways to administer drugs and to weigh a halt on elective procedures and clinical trials.
Some hospital officials said they have only a day or two of supplies and worry whether they would be able to handle an influx of patients as the influenza virus ramps up. Forty-six states are seeing widespread flu activity, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, putting this year on par with 2014-15, which was the most severe flu season in recent years.
The availability of saline IV bags has plummeted because a major manufacturer in Puerto Rico, Baxter International Inc., was affected by the hurricane that slammed its plants on the island, while production problems hit another key manufacturer of the bags this year. The Food and Drug Administration said Thursday that production at Puerto Rico plants remains fragile…
Baxter said its two IV plants in Puerto Rico now are hooked up to the electrical grid but that power is ‘intermittent’ and that the plants have backup diesel generators in place. In a statement, the company said it is ‘making progress on the road to a full recovery’ of operations and expects ‘to return to more normal supply levels for products made in Puerto Rico in the coming weeks.’
A Baxter spokesman added that there isn’t normally enough industry capacity to ramp up the supply of small IV solution bags for hospitals to quickly make up for a major disruption like a hurricane.
A large hospital can go through hundreds or thousands of IV bags a day, depending on patient volume.”
-Stephanie Armour and Thomas M. Burton, “Hospitals Wrestle With Shortage of IV Bags, Linked to Hurricane,” The Wall Street Journal online, Jan. 7, 2018 02:10pm