Summary
A nationwide IV fluid shortage, caused by Hurricane Helene’s damage to Baxter International’s North Carolina facility, is forcing hospitals to adopt conservation measures that could reshape patient hydration practices.
The facility, which supplies 60% of U.S. IV fluids, has resumed partial production but won’t reach full capacity soon.
Hospitals are rationing supplies, using alternatives like push medications, and re-evaluating hydration protocols to ensure care continuity.
While these strategies could permanently reduce IV fluid use, challenges include increased nurse workloads, patient monitoring risks, and strained resources amid respiratory virus season and year-end surgical demands.
Its also different attempting to hurricane proof on mountainous terrain. The winds were a little gusty bit nothing too out of the ordinary, at least where I was, the biggest problem was the wall of fast moving water. A downhill rush of 30 feet of water is very powerful and the tanker trucks and rail cars it swept up smashed all sort of things. A lot of the roads and some of the houses got washed out because the ground beneath them was swept away. About 40% of the trees are down in the area. If I remember correctly this facility is near Old Fort which is at the bottom of the mountains so all that water and debris rushing down and wiping out a very poor town of mostly trailers.