The offices of the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services are seen in Juneau on Friday, July 1, 2022. (Photo by Lisa Phu/Alaska Beacon)
Officials at the Alaska Department of Health are alerting emergency medical services of a possible IV fluids shortage after Hurricane Helene damaged a factory that produces roughly 60% of the liquid used in IVs.
The alert was included in a notice published Thursday through EMS Vitals, a newsletter distributed to EMS specialists statewide. It follows similar alerts from other medical facilities in different parts of the country.
“We’re really just putting out some advisory notices to our EMS community to say, hey, start thinking about this,” said Gene Wiseman, section chief of rural and community health systems for the Department of Health.
“We wanted to do a targeted approach, because we’re just concerned about (EMS providers) in rural Alaska. Shipping is difficult, and so if there’s extra delays, they need to start thinking ahead and maybe double an order or do whatever they need to do to make sure that they can get supply,” he said.
Baxter International Inc., the source of the latest concern, is one of the nation’s largest medical supply companies. Its North Cove factory, in Marion, North Carolina, was partially flooded by a levee breach, the company said earlier this week, and bridges leading to the factory have been damaged.
Marion is northwest of Charlotte and east of Asheville, in a region struck by heavy rain and flooding. Many homes have been damaged or destroyed in the area, and residents have been killed or injured.
On Thursday, the company said its first priority is its workers, and “we are working with the greatest urgency, but we do not yet have a timeline for when operations will be back up and running.”
Wiseman said the Department of Health hasn’t received federal guidance on the possible shortage, but he expects that to come in the next few days.
Providence Alaska Medical Center, the state’s largest hospital, is aware of the issue, said Mikal Canfield, a spokesperson for the hospital.
“The situation and impact to products and availability are currently being assessed, but in the meantime, Providence is employing various mitigation strategies to ensure there is no disruption to patient care, including strategies to conserve current supply and use of alternative fluids and solutions as appropriate,” he said by email.
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