Maryland hospitals dealing with IV fluid shortage after hurricane damaged N.C. facility

BALTIMORE -- Maryland healthcare professionals are concerned by the shortage of IV fluid caused by the fallout from Hurricane Helene in the southeast.

Baxter International, the leading supplier of IV fluids to hospitals, said its facility in North Carolina, will be closed for the foreseeable future because of severe flooding in the region. Baxter International supplies 60% of the country's IV fluid bags.

"Baxter's North Cove facility was affected by flooding and is currently closed for production as the company assesses the extent of the impact," the company said on its website.

The Maryland Hospital Association says it is working with the state's health department to find a solution.

In the meantime, MHA says that "hospitals are conserving IV and other solutions that are in short supply" and encouraging patients with non-emergency health concerns to consider alternative options like urgent care.

The American Hospital Association is pushing President Joe Biden to declare a national emergency and erase restrictions on supplies.  

Dr. Johnathan Stallkamp, from Main Line Health in Philadelphia, told CBS News there are substantial shortages impacting patients and it could get worse with Hurricane Milton approaching Florida.

"It means we have to change the way we do business," Stallkamp said. "We have to change how we hydrate patients, now encourage a bottle of Gatorade."

Maryland hospitals seek solutions 

LifeBridge Health said they are implementing conservation measures while looking to other sources and vendors for IV fluid as needed.

"LifeBridge Health will continue to meet regularly to plan for adequate coverage to meet the needs of our health systems, including looking to other sources and vendors for IV fluid, as needed," LifeBridge Health said in a statement.

Hospital associations say long-term shortages will lead to delayed procedures.

"Looking at elective procedures, elective surgeries, and maybe postponing them for now," said Cristopher Chamberlain, the Vice President for the Hospital Association of Pennsylvania. "Now, the challenge is those are short-term strategies." 

How are supplies now?

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, as of Friday, has not declared any new shortages tied to products made at Baxter's plant.

However, experts see vulnerability in the supply chain. Bags of IV solutions take up a lot of space, and it's expensive for hospitals to keep large stockpiles.

IV solutions also must be kept sterile and don't have long shelf lives, according to Dr. Paul Biddinger, of Mass General Brigham.

"Maintaining a large supply of things that expire quickly is actually pretty tricky," Biddinger said.

Smaller hospitals may only have a few days of supply on hand, added Mike Ganio, who studies drug shortages at the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists. 

Baxter is looking at using other factories around the world to fill some of the supply gap.

The company also has some stored finished products that were not affected by the storm. However, access to their plant is limited because bridges to the site were damaged.

Ganio said other manufacturers also may be able to increase production, but that isn't easy to do.

How long could recovery take?

Baxter said Thursday that it was still assessing damage, and it had no timeline yet for when the plant will resume operations.

Last year, a North Carolina pharmaceutical plant run by Pfizer restarted production about 10 weeks after it was heavily damaged by a tornado. That plant also is a major supplier to U.S. hospitals.

Most of the damage from the tornado was confined to a storage area, not the part that produces medicine.

Ganio said this recovery at the Baxter site could go on for months.

"The damage to a manufacturing facility — especially one that makes sterile products — is not a quick fix," he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.