A member of the dialysis team prepares to treat a patient with COVID-19 in the intensive care unit at a hospital in Leonardtown on May 1, 2020. Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images.
Maryland hospitals and health officials are keeping a wary eye on their supplies of sterile intravenous fluids after recent hurricane damage knocked out a major North Carolina-based manufacturer.
There have not been any disruptions to scheduled surgeries yet, but the Maryland Department of Health is encouraging facilities to conserve supplies and look to alternatives – just giving people fluids to drink in cases of dehydration, for example – until the supply chain can be restored.
“It’s very, very concerning,” said Dr. Mariana Socal, an associate professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, of the shortage that is being felt nationwide.
“We are talking about something that is common. It is more than widely used – it’s universally used. And we depend on this to specifically treat the most critically ill patients in the most critical health care situations,” Socal said.