East Coast port closures and damage to the Baxter intravenous solution manufacturing plant in Marion, North Carolina, from Hurricane Helene could have an impact on supplies at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and other hospitals, according to Chief Supply Chain Officer Teresa Dail, RN, BSN.
The Baxter plant is down and probably will be so for months, Dail said, although VUMC does not use Baxter as its primary supplier of IV fluids.
VUMC does use dialysis fluid (hemodialysis and peritoneal) and a kit for the dialysis machines from the Baxter plant but recently moved the kits to Medline and currently has several months of inventory available.
“Our vendor for IV fluid is ICU Medical, which has a healthy inventory and is not anticipating any impact to customers currently,” Dail said. “However, given that Baxter provides 60% of the IV/irrigation fluids to hospitals, if they can’t get up and running, it would not surprise me if there is a directive given to those companies to shift some of their inventory to hospitals who currently use Baxter.”
“We do not anticipate any issues with the hemodialysis fluid as it is made in Illinois,” she said. “The peritoneal is of concern, so we are waiting for Baxter to announce what they are going to do. In the meantime, we have met with the medical directors of Renal, and they are considering options should we not be able to get resupply. Currently we have two months of inventory available, so short term we are covered and will build our long-term plan as this evolves with our clinical leaders.”
Chief Pharmacy Officer Mark Sullivan, PharmD, said his team is aware of the potential impact on access to IV solutions and has been instructed to use its stockpile judiciously.
“We do anticipate tightening in the market as those entities who partner with the impacted manufacturing sites shift to the vendors with available alternative products,” Sullivan said. “The pharmacy team that manages ongoing drug shortages has added the various products impacted to our list and is proactively working on mitigation strategies.”
VUMC officials are also watching East Coast port closures closely for potential impacts.
Medline, a medical and surgical distributor that delivers six days a week, is not projecting any major disruption of products other than what is already being experienced with daily back orders. Manufacturer direct vendors have also stated to both VUMC and national groups that they are not anticipating any immediate impact.
“The ports are 100% operational on the West Coast and all vendors have identified the West Coast and air travel as options,” Dail said. “Many manufacturers increased inventory in the states prior to this to avoid higher cost of shipping if the port strike came to fruition. We will be watching our purchase orders closely for what is not filling timely and work to bring in subs if necessary to fill gaps where we can. We have also prebuilt noncontracted vendor information into the system to allow us to react quickly by shifting our procurement strategy.
“Our concern is not immediate, but if this continues on for a prolonged period of time, we will see the same impact we had with COVID, with ships not being able to get into port timely after sitting for days/weeks and then the transportation readiness (drivers/trucks) running behind to do cross-country transports,” she said.
Dail said Environmental Services, Food Services, Linen, Lab and Pharmacy have all been alerted to watch their orders as the impact is going to be across the board and not just medical supplies.
The best strategy right now for the organization is to conserve our inventory where we are able and to minimize any waste, she added.
