American Thoracic Society provides tips for hospitals to manage IV fluid supply amid shortage

The American Thoracic Society is providing tips to help hospitals mitigate impacts on intravenous (IV) fluid supply resulting from manufacturing disruptions due to recent hurricanes.

W. Graham Carlos, M.D., and colleagues provide guidance on how health care systems facing shortages of these fluids may conserve fluids and address the shortages.

Tips include converting patients to oral rehydration, oral medications, and oral antibiotics, as appropriate; reconfiguring electronic health records to guide appropriate prescribing and routine reassessment of the need for IV fluid orders; implementing specific breakpoint criteria for utilization of IV electrolytes and preferentially use oral repletion of electrolytes; limiting utilization of parenteral nutrition; and considering delay of elective surgeries. Additionally, the authors suggest using a “just-in-time” approach to eliminate waste with prespike fluids, balancing having enough against wasting fluids that need to be discarded due to time in warmer, and using smaller bag sizes for low-rate continuous infusions when possible.

“IV fluids are lifesaving for many people who present in shock due to trauma, infection, or bleeding. We need to work together as a nation to ensure that they have the IV fluids if/when they are needed,” Carlos said in a statement.

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