Patient safety is at risk, contends the American Hospital Association, which is asking the federal government to take immediate action to declare a national emergency, after flooding from Hurricane Helene left a major North Carolina IV solutions plant damaged.
The AHA, which represents 5,000 hospitals and health systems, sent a letter to Pres. Biden on Monday to "declare a national emergency under the National Emergencies Act … and request that Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra declare a national Public Health Emergency in order to create the circumstances that will allow for waivers of Medicare/Medicaid rules and regulations," according to the AHA letter.
The AHA is concerned about the closure of the Baxter medical supply plant in Marion, North Carolina, which manufactures approximately 60% of the sterile intravenous fluids and kidney dialysis fluids for the U.S. Some hospitals are rescheduling non-emergency procedures in an effort to conserve limited supply.
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Because of the flooding, "our members are already reporting substantial shortages of these lifesaving and life-supporting products. Patients across America are already feeling this impact, which will only deepen in the coming days and weeks unless much more is done to alleviate the situation and minimize the impact on patient care," the AHA wrote in a letter.
Baxter said in a press release Monday that supply will be adjusted in the next two weeks as their overseas plants ramp up manufacturing and have already started to limit ordering to prevent stockpiling. "Baxter and all other suppliers of these IV solutions have put their customers on strict ordering allocations and are not accepting new customers," said the AHA letter.
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The AHA is also asking the White House direct the Food and Drug Administration to "declare a shortage of sterile IV solutions, which will permit the use of certain flexibilities not otherwise available to health care providers," according to the letter.
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Lynn Cavanaugh
Lynn Varacalli Cavanaugh is Senior Editor, Retirement at BenefitsPRO. Prior, she was editor-in-chief of the What's New in Benefits & Compensation newsletter. She has worked for major firms in the employee benefits space, Vanguard and Willis Towers Watson, as well as top media companies, including Condé Nast and American Media.
