ALLENTOWN, Pa. — The medical community is experiencing an IV shortage because of Hurricane Helene in the South.
Now, a Lehigh Valley based manufacturer is ramping up production of the products needed for intravenous therapy.
Production has been halted at a main provider of IV kits at the plant in North Cove, North Carolina run by Baxter. The outage has led to a shortage in the supply chain of intravenous therapy equipment known as IVs.
Medical technology company B. Braun in Allentown is increasing its production of medical products to compensate.
"We are doing our part to ramp up all available production to help support healthcare and be a part of the solution."Allison Longenhagen
"We do not have the excess capacity to completely fill the gap while they're out, but we are doing our part to ramp up all available production to help support healthcare and be a part of the solution,” B. Braun Corporate Communications Director Allison Longenhagen said.
B. Braun, a German company, is among the largest manufacturers of IV solutions for the U.S. market. Those products are manufactured in the Irvine, California, plant and the Daytona Beach, Florida, plant.
Locally they manufacture tubing, valves, connectors and other medical devices that are required for infusion therapy.
"We are working here at headquarters also to increase our supply of IV fluids and the medical devices needed,” Longenhagen said.
“We're ramping up production of our IV fluid manufacturing facilities and those facilities are expected to increase by 20 percent in the near future.”
Longenhagen said the increase will boost the number of IV sets B. Braun delivers to health care providers more than 30 million.
Patient impact
In the meantime, she said B. Braun is hearing from customers that they are feeling the effect of the shortage at the patient level.
"What that leads to is changes in patient care, so where they might have given an IV to a patient, they will likely give them oral hydration through, you know, Gatorade or power in one of those electrolyte forward drinks,” she said.
Longenhagen said her company has shared with customers the conservation guidelines put out by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists to healthcare facilities to ensure that they're conserving their fluids during this time of shortage.
Local Hospital
The two major hospital systems in the Lehigh Valley had different responses to the shortage.
St. Luke’s University Health Network said it has not been impacted by the lack of IV kits.
A statement from Lehigh Valley Health Network said, "A multidisciplinary team is monitoring the situation continuously and will communicate conservation steps as necessary."
The release said steps currently being taken to conserve IV fluids and irrigation products include:
- Omitting IV Fluids unless clinically indicated
- Assessing patients on IV fluids frequently and discontinuing IV fluids as soon as clinically appropriate
- Placing a stop time to initial IV fluid orders when appropriate
- Maximizing the use of oral/enteral antibiotics, electrolytes, and other medications in place of IV admixtures where appropriate
- Omitting or opting for smaller volume irrigation fluids as indicated
- Having the pharmacy contact providers when intravenous orders can be changed to oral
Local jobs available
B. Braun's Longenhagen said the company now is hiring people in the Lehigh Valley as it ramps up production.
“I encourage those who are looking for a career in manufacturing to check in on our website or reach out to our site on Marcon Boulevard about working in our site,” Longenhagen said.
Those interested in applying can do so on the B. Braun website or by reaching out to the site on Marcon Boulevard in Hanover Township.
As for the Baxter plant in North Carolina, the company is ramping up production at their other locations as it works to clean up and get back on track in the South.
