Saline IV bags are in low supply this flu season because of a shortage throughout the country The Great Falls Tribune reported Monday.
The shortage has caused the bags price to rise from its regular range of $1 to $1.25 to five or six fold this cost according to information from the United States Food and Drug Administration The Tribune reported.
"It puts stress on the system," Michelle Corrado, assistant director of pharmacy for Hallmark Health System told The Tribune. a regional provider of health care north of Boston, and president of the Massachusetts Society for Health System Pharmacists. "It pulls people's focus away from what they need to be doing," Corrado told The Tribune. Corrado is also president of the Massachusetts Society for Health System Pharmacists. The system provides health care to the north of Boston The Tribune reported.
Medical staff noticed the shortage at the beginning of January The Tribune reported. Despite the apparent shortfall, the situation is reportedly on the upswing The Tribune reported.
"For sure every week there's a new shortage we have to deal with," Dean Parry, director of clinical pharmacy programs for central and northeastern Pennsylvania's Geisinger Health System told The Tribune. "I wouldn't say it's getting worse, but it's a real problem," Parry told The Tribune.
Parry's staff are coping with the latest shortage by thinning medicine into liquid form
"From a pharmacy and nursing standpoint, clearly there's a significant amount of work put into it to make sure we don't run out and we manage the supplies we have in the most effective manner," Parry told The Tribune.
Eighty to ninety percent of hospital patients receive IV during their hospital stay The Tribune reported.
"FDA is concerned about the seriousness of the shortage and working closely with manufacturers to ramp up supplies," Christopher Kelly of the FDA told The Tribune. "We are also investigating foreign suppliers to help address the situation," Kelly told The Tribune.
