Posted on 06/27/2014 4:27:49 AM PDT by SoFloFreeper
Hospitals across the country are struggling to deal with a shortage of one of their essential medical supplies. Manufacturers are rationing saline — a product used all over the hospital to clean wounds, mix medications and treat dehydration. Now drug companies say they won’t be able to catch up with demand until next year.
...“The Most Expensive Drug Shortage in History”
The burden ultimately falls on hospitals, clinics, and dialysis centers to come up with their own workarounds. And all that staff time adds up. Hospitals spend $216 million a year on the labor costs of managing drug shortages, according to Erin Fox, a professor at the University of Utah College of Pharmacy.
Now that the industry has indicated the saline shortage will extend through the end of the year, Fox estimates this will be the most expensive drug shortage in history....
(Excerpt) Read more at pbs.org ...
The media, eager to cover for this pathetic administration, blames the economy on the weather....and blames this shortage on the FLU SEASON.....
A shortage of salt water. What next, they run out of air?
Dehydration can be a BFD and a lack of sufficient quantities of saline IV fluid could be a big problem.
Isn’t saline solution just distilled water and salt?
Essentially, yes.
CC
What is the self life of toilet paper? I think I may need to stockpile.
I’m just guessing here but it would not surprise me that the ObamaCare Machine has decided that something as simple as sterile water dosed with salt has to be sold for some ridiculously low price and that the saline producing industry has correspondingly responded.
Thanks, Obama.
There are plenty of pictures of Obama in all the newspapers. Stockpile them. You’ll just have to get used to the black ink in your underwear. :o)
That is an excellent guess; artificially low prices always lead to shortages no matter which dictator tries it.
“Anyone who doesn’t think a shortage of a SIMPLE STAPLE like saline isn’t indicative of a problem with Obamacare is mentally deficient.”
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I must be mentally deficient then because I think a shortage of saline is a problem.
I work in a hospital. Every week, literally, we’re getting an email from the head of the pharmacy dept about a new drug shortage. This has been going on for the last 3 or 4 years.
I’ve been in practice since 1997. I have never ever seen recalls and shortages in my career until Obama took office. Just sayin
Saline shortage: FDA works with Baxter, Hospira and Braun
The FDA is warning healthcare providers that there is a shortage of saline solution, as well as other IV solutions. The agency says it is working with Baxter International ($BAX)—which recently had to recall four lots of saline—Hospira ($HSP) and Braun to boost production.
The FDA said in an announcement posted Friday to its website that it is working with the drugmakers to “help preserve the supply of these necessary products” and boost production. In a letter from Baxter to suppliers posted with the FDA notice, the company said it was working to increase supplies but given that “product supply remains tight,” it was forced to put non-contract buyers on an allocations system. “These steps enable Baxter to evaluate and adjust our production levels, provide predictability of demand to our manufacturing plants, establish a timeline for providing additional product; and maintain and improve our service levels for Baxter committed customers,” the company wrote.
In December, Baxter had to recall four lots of saline, as well as one lot of 5% dextrose injection, in the U.S. and three other countries after particulate matter was discovered in the solutions. Shortly after, it issued a recall of three lots from its Clinimix line of parenteral nutrition products for the same reason. Hospira recalled a lot of saline in April of last year after a customer found four single particles in a container. The particles ended up being polyester fiber, nylon fiber, cotton fiber and nitrocellulose fiber.
There’s always coconut water.
What is this "newpaper" thing of which you speak? I think I've heard of them, I may even have seen one once.
If you go further into the article, to manufacturers blame each other, also.
Is Helium still in short supply? If I remember correctly, hospitals use it for the scan machines or some such.
Unreal. Either its a manufactured shortage, or an increase in demand because of the influx of illegals or something like that. Or maybe the DHS stockpiled it with their guns.
“To make one of these drugs is very complex, even though the drug itself is simple,” said Valerie Jensen, the director of the drug shortage program at the Food and Drug Administration. “It takes about three weeks to make one batch of normal saline from start to finish.”
She says the key challenge is making sure saline products are sterile. More than 30 steps and a range of supplies are involved in producing sterile saline. Jensen says FDA inspectors have reason to keep a close eye on any drug injected intravenously. She says they’ve found some nasty things in IV drugs: bacteria, mold, glass particles.
“These are issues that absolutely would be a safety risk for patients,” she said.
That’s why the FDA sets strict quality standards for the facilities that manufacture saline and other IV drugs. But the agency has to find a delicate balance between safety and supply.
There is your culprit - government "intervention" to make us safer makes it too costly to make simple water with a bit of salt in it.
Saline is salt and water with a few buffering agents thrown in. I don’t see why they can’t be making this stuff by the tanker load. Sounds to me like another manufactured shortage designed to drive up prices.
But the agency has to find a delicate balance between safety and supply.
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I wonder if the “delicate” balance is related to the balance of campaign contributions to one political party or the other. Gibson guitars comes to mind and do the closure of highly successful General Motors dealerships.
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