ST. GEORGE, Utah — Anyone with an elective surgery scheduled in the coming weeks or days should be prepared for a delay, all due to a hurricane that left a path of destruction on the other side of the country.
Hurricane Helene, which devastated the southeast U.S., has damaged a North Carolina factory that produces 60% of the IV fluids and supplies to Utah hospitals, which is also having a ripple effect across the country.
As the Utah Hospital Association Emergency Preparedness director, Jordan Sorenson works for the organization that represents all of Utah hospitals. He previously dealt with a similar crisis during the pandemic, but hospitals are now taking some of the same measures they had to during COVID.
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"What the hospitals have done is they have implemented some pretty strict conservation strategies," he said. "Where and when they can, they reduce IV fluid usage. If the patient's able to drink rather than having an IV, they're doing it."
Baxter International in North Carolina has returned to operations, but the damage has been done for medical providers.
"What that's leading to is the postponement of elective surgeries, especially those that are IV intensive," explained Sorenson. "Luckily, the medically emergent surgeries, trauma, chemo, things like that, haven't been affected."
Unlike the setups in other states, Sorenson said Utah hospitals get along with each other and are willing to share.
"Even though we're competitors, we all realize we're in the same boat together. And that if one hospital tips over and runs out of IV fluids, it's going to have a knock-on effect for the rest of the facilities," he said.
But something that may need a lifeboat are those medical providers and clinics that aren’t hospital-affiliated, such as dialysis centers. There are also rural hospitals with tiny staffs where the emergency doctor is also the pediatrician and the chief of surgery.
"We've got to take care of those folks because they are the epitome of doing more with less," Sorenson added.
Unlike the heart of the pandemic, where it seemed like there was no end in sight, there is an endpoint to the current situation, with suppliers and hospitals believing that everything should be back to normal by Christmas.
