OPINION:
America’s health care system is facing a potential crisis, and it has nothing to do with Obamacare, opioids or veterans’ care.
The potential crisis stems from a shortage of those ubiquitous IV solution bags used in hospitals, nursing homes and hospice settings, and are ever-present in TV dramas as fictitious patients are lifted for ambulatory services.
The problem has become particularly acute since Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico, home to Baxter International Inc., the biggest supplier of the bags and one of America’s key suppliers.
The bags are used to provide intravenous fluids such as: life-saving medications, painkillers, antibiotics, chemotherapy and heart drugs. In many instances, they also help rehydrate patients and restore electrolytes.
The Food and Drug Administration is aware of the real-life shortage, as is MedStar, the largest health care system in Maryland and the D.C. region.
In addition, the American Medical Association recently characterized the worsening shortage of critical medical supplies like small-volume IV bags as “quickly becoming a crisis and threat to public health.”
Meanwhile, Thomas P. Nickels, executive vice president of the American Hospital Association, sent a strongly worded letter to FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb: “We strongly urge FDA to do more by pushing current manufacturers to not only continue to produce these products at their maximum capacity but also to make investments to ensure an increasing supply for the future. We also encourage FDA to seek out and approve new domestic suppliers of these products in locations that are not prone to natural disasters.”
The reference to natural disasters was a direct reference to Hurricane Maria’s devastation of Puerto Rico, where Baxter has three manufacturing sites.
Baxter said earlier this fall that the shortage is somewhat mitigated by the fact that the U.S. government “granted regulatory discretion for temporary special importation of certain products from Baxter facilities in Ireland and Australia to help support product supply for the U.S. market.”
MedStar’s Bonnie Levin, assistant vice president of pharmacy services, told NPR that Baxter had reduced its saline distribution to 50 percent of its usual order and that some of the orders were a month old.
Don’t think for a moment, however, that health care officials are drumming their fingers on the hospital reception desk waiting for supply orders to arrive. They are, as the saying goes, looking back to move forward.
To help alleviate the IV bag shortage, many hospitals are reverting to delivering medication in pill form or administering it by syringe, although such workflow changes can be expensive and more time consuming. Some facilities, including the University of Wisconsin at Madison’s UW Health system, also are using drug pumps as alternatives.
The Associated Press reported late Wednesday that several medical facilities in North Dakota aren’t taking any chances: The state’s facilities are scrambling to stockpile IV bags, and some already have made requests from the state’s medical supply reserves, concerned their supply will be depleted in two to four weeks.
Smart, eh, considering that half of Puerto Rico remains without power since Hurricane Maria hit the U.S. territory on Sept. 20.
Regional hospital systems and unions do a good job of proportioning beds, staffing and specialties. Still, an unintended consequence of Hurricane Maria is a potential medical supply shortage on the mainland.
U.S. and the medical community must soldier on to avert another public health crisis.
• Deborah Simmons can be contacted at dsimmons@washingtontimes.com.
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