IV fluid supply shortage draining Capital Region supply James De La Fuente — NEWS10 ABC

When hurricane Helene hit North Carolina it damaged a facility that produces about 60 percent of the country’s IV fluid supply. New York’s Health Commissioner said this impacts nearly half of New York hospitals. NEWS10 spoke with Capital Region hospitals and patients about how this has already led to the delay of some elective surgeries at Albany Medical Center.

CAPITAL REGION, N.Y. (NEWS10) — When hurricane Helene hit North Carolina it damaged a facility that produces about 60 percent of the country’s IV fluid supply. New York’s Health Commissioner said this impacts nearly half of New York hospitals. NEWS10 spoke with Capital Region hospitals and patients about how this has already led to the delay of some elective surgeries at Albany Medical Center.

A patient who wants to remain anonymous said her procedure has been affected, “I get the call from Albany Med, you know, with my pre-op testing, all my instructions went through all the medications with them. And a day later I get a call telling me that this coming Wednesday is canceled.”

The cancellation coming at a cost of more than just her time, when she factors in the pre-op testing, “I’m looking at a couple of thousand (dollars) probably. If I have to reschedule it into next year.” She’s worried the delays will continue saying, “I could go through this all over again, reschedule my other testing that I had rescheduled in the first place, rescheduled again. So, it would be at the end of December if possible.”

The North Carolina plant is still deep cleaning before restarting production, but Helene damaged infrastructure outside the building as well.

Jason Mazurkas, Executive Vice President and Hospital General Director for Albany Medical Center said, “The Department of Transportation is now actively building access to that factory, including bridges, and ultimately it’s caused a significant slowing of supply production.”

Albany Medical Center is activating what they call their Incident Command, “We have developed a very robust tier plan approaching different clinical areas to try to conserve and manage those critical supplies,” said Mazurkas.

New York Oncology Hematology said they are prepared for any possible shortages and are adjusting for how some patients receive fluids, “We can encourage more oral intake and then maybe instead of maybe hanging a liter bag of fluid for them, maybe having a half a liter bag. So, you know, we’re kind of taking each patient as it comes along in assessing their needs,” said Nancy Egerton, Director of Pharmacy and Admixture Services at New York Oncology Hematology.

Ellis Medicine and St. Peters Health Partners explained that they too are monitoring the situation as they receive limited shipments and implementing conservation measures. Local healthcare leaders say there have been other shortages of supplies, most notably during the pandemic. Now, they say they are better prepared to face this kind of issue, “We’re kind of back in the same boat and we’ve been through this before. So, we’re just kind of re-implementing a lot of the same measures,” said Egerton.

It remains unclear how long the shortage will disrupt the supply chain. Healthcare officials are optimistic for a quick turnaround as the United States works with Canadian and United Kingdom markets for more IV fluids.

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