Trucks and Gatorade
Federal officials, meanwhile, are working with Baxter to support increasing supplies, setting up temporary imports and expediting the processing of any shelf-life extension requests.
In a letter earlier this week, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra told healthcare leaders that the department is “working tirelessly to mitigate sterile solutions supply chain disruptions” and, in addition to the current crisis, is also working on diversifying its offering. chain, so that it is less dependent on a single plant.
But for now, HHS encourages all providers and health care systems, regardless of whether they have experienced a disruption in their supply, to take steps to preserve these critical products, the letter said. Some hospitals have already reported giving patients Gatorade and Pedialyte to conserve IV fluid supplies.
One bright spot in the current disruptions is that fears that Hurricane Milton would disrupt another IV fluids plant in Florida were not realized this week. B. Braun Medical's manufacturing site in Daytona Beach was not seriously affected by the storm, the company announced, and production resumed normally on Friday. Prior to the storm, B. Braun, with the assistance of the federal government, reportedly moved more than 60 truckloads of IV fluid inventory north of Florida for safekeeping. That inventory will be returned to the Daytona facility, according to the Associated Press.
