The University of Virginia Health System has canceled all elective surgeries at its hospitals for the remainder of the week amid a nationwide shortage of IV fluid.
The decision comes after the Charlottesville-based health care provider canceled elective surgeries on Monday and Tuesday of this week, promising to reschedule patient appointments. Whether the health system will be able to see those patients or will continue to cancel surgeries remains in question, as the health system’s supplier of IV fluid has said its North Carolina factory — hit hard by Hurricane Helene — may not be back online until the end of the year.
In order to preserve its limited supply of IV fluid, UVa Health has been canceling and rescheduling specifically nonemergency, elective surgeries at its flagship hospital in Charlottesville as well as its medical centers in Culpeper, Haymarket and Manassas.
When pressed on a timeline for when all elective surgeries will be able to resume, UVa Health directed The Daily Progress to a list of frequently asked questions on its website.
“How long will this shortage last? We don’t know,” the website says. “The affected facility is working to restore its supply. Full restoration may take several weeks. In the meantime, we’re actively looking for other ways to restore our fluid supply and return to normal.”
The health system said it is in communication with patients who have scheduled surgeries and has promised that all rescheduled appointments will be honored.
“UVa Health representatives are contacting patients if their elective surgeries need to be postponed and will continue to monitor the supply situation in the coming days,” UVa Health said in a prepared statement. “Any postponed surgeries will be rescheduled as soon as possible once the critical IV supplies become more available.”
When that will be is hard to pinpoint.
For the past week, hospitals, nursing homes and dialysis centers across the country have been running low on IV fluid after Hurricane Helene damaged roads and bridges near pharmaceutical company Baxter International’s factory in Marion, North Carolina.
Baxter, based in Deerfield, Illinois, is the largest supplier of IV products in the U.S., providing 60% of IV products used by American hospitals.
The company said Wednesday that it plans to reopen the North Carolina factory in stages, returning to full or near-full allocation of certain IV products by the end of 2024.
In the meantime, Baxter is scaling production at its other plants to increase allocation of IV fluids in the highest demand by 20% for direct customers and by 50% for distributors. For the designated children’s hospitals the manufacturer typically supplies, Baxter is increasing allocation for IV solutions and nutrition products to 100%.
The federal government is assisting that effort, temporarily permitting the company to import products from its overseas factories.
“Our goal continues to be able to restore customers to 100% allocation levels as soon as possible,” Baxter said in a statement.
Other IV fluid manufacturers have attempted to step up and fill the void, including B. Braun Medical, the second-largest IV fluid supplier in the country. However, inclement weather has dampened those efforts. B. Braun announced Tuesday that it would be temporarily closing two of its facilities in Daytona Beach, Florida, in order to protect its finished supply before Hurricane Milton’s Wednesday landfall on the state’s Gulf Coast.
“The Daytona Beach facility is a key part of our plan to help address the shutdown of Baxter’s IV solutions manufacturing facility in North Carolina,” B. Braun said in a statement. “We are focused on protecting our people and mitigating the impact of the storm on our IV solutions supply.”
The back-to-back natural disasters have left many hospitals salvaging whatever IV products they can from storage. UVa Health said it is working to reduce any unnecessary waste of IV products, including IV fluids, dialysis fluids, parenteral nutrition and irrigation fluids.
“As the area’s only level 1 trauma hospital, the medical center is taking these measures to ensure care for its most critical patients,” UVa Health said in a statement.
Earlier in the week, the American Hospital Association, a national trade group representing nearly 5,000 health systems, sent a letter to President Joe Biden urging the White House to declare a nationwide emergency over the shortage.
“Our members are already reporting substantial shortages of these lifesaving and life-supporting products,” reads the letter. “Patients across America are already feeling this impact, which will only deepen in the coming days and weeks unless much more is done to alleviate the situation and minimize the impact on patient care.”
UVa Health patients who have appointments for elective surgeries but have not been contacted by the health system have been instructed to still go to their assigned medical facility for their procedure. The IV fluid shortage should not discourage anyone from seeking medical care in an emergency, UVa Health said.
The IV fluid shortage has had no impact on the Charlottesville area’s other major health care provider, Sentara Health, which sources its fluids from another manufacturer. Sentara currently has a “30-to-60-day supply of dialysis products on hand,” according to Senior Vice President Tim Jennings.
“We are assessing our options for using alternative products and implementing a conservation program to extend existing IV supplies,” Jennings said in a statement delivered to The Daily Progress on Monday. “Sentara Supply Chain is purchasing additional IV products as they are available. In the meantime, we continue serving patients’ IV needs in our hospital and home care divisions.”
Source: www.dailyprogress.com
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