Surgery delays continue as Minnesota hospitals grapple with IV solution shortage

Surgery delays continued across Minnesota this week as hospitals confronted a hurricane-related shortage of sterile saline and other intravenous solutions.

M Health Fairview extended its delays through Monday, rescheduling non-emergent inpatient and outpatient surgeries that required sterile saline or IV fluids. Minneapolis-based Allina Health and Hennepin Healthcare also notified some patients that they delayed their procedures after Hurricane Helene temporarily knocked out Baxter’s manufacturing plant for sterile solutions in North Carolina.

Jen Schmitt, 44, of Lino Lakes was expecting a call Tuesday to confirm the time for her outpatient hysterectomy Wednesday morning but instead learned M Health Fairview had postponed it until December. Other Minnesotans with orthopedic, urologic and other procedures learned of similar delays.

“I mean there’s nothing anybody can do, right?” Schmitt said. “It was a natural disaster.”

Hennepin Healthcare on Friday installed a reminder in its electronic medical record system to encourage clinicians when appropriate to switch to oral rather than IV solutions when patients need hydration. IV usage immediately declined through the weekend.

While IV solutions are the go-to option for many clinicians, “there are others times when oral rehydration is perfectly reasonable,” said Dr. Ryan Jelinek, Hennepin Healthcare’s chief health information officer. “Our bodies do a great job of absorbing fluids when they are needed.”

Hospitals across Minnesota were sharing successful strategies to conserve sterile and IV solutions in order to stretch the entire state’s supply, he added.

Conservation efforts continued in Minnesota even as IV-solution maker Baxter reported progress. The Illinois-based manufacturer said Wednesday it was able to increase available supplies of its highest-demand IV fluids from 40% to 60% of what customers requested through expanded production at other plants. It also prioritized fluid supplies and nutritional products for pediatric hospitals such as Children’s Minnesota with especially vulnerable patients.

The company’s goal is to bring the North Carolina plant back to 90% of its production capacity by year’s end.

Whether hospitals obtained their supplies from the Baxter plant, which provides about 60% of the nation’s needs for sterile saline and IV fluids, largely dictated the impact in Minnesota. Other hospitals reported stable supplies, but Hurricane Milton could threaten those, too, if it damages an IV fluids plant in Florida that B. Braun Medical operates.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., sent a letter Tuesday urging a federal response to ease the shortage and said Wednesday she talked with the U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary and was pleased with the progress. The U.S. was importing IV fluids from overseas, she said, and extending the expiration dates of available supplies. Fluid supplies at the Florida plant in the path of the hurricane were also moving to safer locations, she added.

“While its a very difficult short-term problem, it is best that we are being very careful about conserving the IV resources that we have,” she said, though she added “there is a lesson to be learned to not have 60% of the supply at one plant.”

Shortages included saline, which among other uses can irrigate surgery sites, manage fluid levels and prevent dehydration in patients. Also in short supply was dextrose solution, which manages blood sugar levels and reduces surgical complications.

Memorial Blood Centers (MBC) on Wednesday issued a related warning about an expected shortage of donor blood for surgeries because the hurricanes disrupted collection events and centers in the South. The St. Paul-based blood bank asked more Minnesotans to donate to shore up the local and national supply.

“There’s no substitute for blood,” said Kathy Geist, MBC’s vice president, “and the need is critical.”