Omaha hospitals adjusting to IV shortage caused by recent hurricanes

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - Impacts from Hurricane Helene are hitting hospital rooms, including in Omaha.

“IV fluids are really kind of the center stone of everything we do at the hospital,” said Katie Reisbig with Nebraska Medicine.

Access to the life-saving fluid has temporarily slowed down.

“In this case, allocations were issued at the beginning of October at about 40% which means we’ve had to cut utilization by 60%,” Reisbig said.

The problem comes in because Baxter, the major manufacturer of IV fluid for hospitals, was badly affected by the storm in North Carolina.

“Because 60% of the market is coming from that one plant. When that shut down, it’s actually flooded, and it’s no longer in production and the storage facility is flooded as well,” said Abdalla Zarroug of Children’s Nebraska.

Hospitals have been looking to other suppliers to make up for the shortage but in a cruel twist of fate, another was hit by Hurricane Milton.

“It’s very lucky that it’s not the same level of destruction that occurred,” Zarroug said.

At Nebraska Medicine and Children’s Nebraska the shortage hasn’t changed their surgical or emergency services. But they’re doing some things differently and safely to cut back on their current supply.

“We’ve had to change how frequently we will start and how much fluid we will provide to people,” Reisbig told 6 News.

Medical professionals are also advising patients to hydrate before a procedure.

“You can drink water or apple juice or clears up to two hours, but we didn’t really enforce that with the families or stress that. Then we did,” said Zarroug.

According to Baxter, they hope to have supply back to 90% or 100% by the end of the year. In the meantime, medical professionals are doing their best to stay ahead of the situation.

“This is an ongoing issue, but I think all healthcare entities are working hard to make sure we have fluid available for patients at the highest need,” said Reisbig.

According to the FDA, no new shortages from Baxter’s North Carolina facility have been declared.

The FDA continues to help Baxter increase supply through their additional facilities and from other suppliers as needed.

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