The fallout from Hurricane Helene is threatening the medical supply chain in the Southeast U.S., after forcing the country’s largest manufacturer of IV fluids and dialysis solutions to temporarily shut down its plant in North Carolina.
Helene is already one of the deadliest mainland storms in the history of the U.S., with more than 100 people killed in the days since it first made landfall in Florida on September 26. Health care and medical technology company Baxter International also has had to close its largest plant, due to damage to the facility caused by flooding. As a result, ABC News reports that Baxter has put a 48-hour hold on all distribution, starting on October 1, to take stock of its supply lines and determine whether it will need to set limits on the products it can distribute to hospitals and medical centers while it works to reopen its plant.
“Baxter is communicating with its customers about the actions the company is taking to minimize potential disruptions,” the company said in a news release.
The closure is expected to primarily impact the Duke University Health System (DUHS) in North Carolina, which includes three hospitals combined between Durham and Raleigh, one of which is a children’s facility. Although there haven’t been any major disruptions as of yet, the DUHS says that it could start to see issues if Baxter’s plant closure drags on for the next few weeks, or if more plants are forced to shut down in the wake of the hurricane. The hospitals also told ABC News that they are looking at ways they can conserve their current stocks of supplies, particularly for anything they consider to be “high, critical, sensitive items.”
