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The US is struggling to address a yearslong IV supply shortage following two back-to-back hurricanes.
A major IV manufacturing site and distribution center in Daytona Beach, Florida, operated by B. Braun Medical is “intact” following Hurricane Milton, director of corporate communications Allison Longenhagen told Healthcare Brew on Thursday. The New York Times reported that B. Braun manufactures about a quarter of the nation’s total IV fluids.
“Our Daytona Beach IV solutions manufacturing site and distribution center were not seriously impacted by Hurricane Milton and will resume operations as planned on Friday morning,” Longenhagen said.
The center closed on Wednesday morning and is set to reopen Friday at 8am, according to a statement on B. Braun’s website.
Ahead of the hurricane’s landfall on Wednesday night, the federal Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) helped the company move more than 60 truckloads of IV solutions to a secure facility north of Florida, Longenhagen said.
She added that the company is still in “daily contact” with ASPR, the drug shortage staff at the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) “to address this issue and help alleviate any impact on patient care.”
A bigger problem. Milton was headed toward B. Braun just two weeks after Hurricane Helene had flooded another IV solution manufacturing site in North Carolina. The site, operated by Baxter International, produces about 60% of the country’s IV solutions, according to the American Hospital Association.
Though Baxter International announced on its website Wednesday that it has increased the volume of IV solutions it will be providing to hospitals and distributors, it’s still not as much as they’d normally get.
The company said Wednesday it’s limiting orders for “highest demand” fluids at 60% of customers’ and distributors’ typical needs. This includes saline, dextrose, and peritoneal dialysis solutions, according to the Florida Hospital Association.
As of Thursday, group purchasing organization Premier surveyed its members and found that 86% are experiencing a shortage of IV fluids.
Before Helene, there was already a shortage of normal saline IV fluids, normal saline irrigation fluid, sterile water irrigation, and dextrose 5% IV fluids, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said in an October 9 letter to stakeholders.
“HHS is encouraging all providers and health systems, regardless of whether they have experienced a disruption in their supply, to take measures to conserve these critical products,” Becerra wrote.