IV shortage--how is your hospital coping?

Our hospital has had a shortage not only on IV fluids but also sterile water. For the first time in forever, I saw Rocephin IVPB with NS instead of IVP with sterile water.

Had to go on a hospital wide hunt for one fluid a couple of weeks ago.

The newest I've heard is a shortage on masks for the flu. I'm not sure where those are manufactured but this is getting ridiculous.

We have been running low on 100mL bags of NS, but other than that we have plenty of IV fluids.

Our system is huge and we have great buying power so we don't typically have the same issues as the other hospitals, but it is getting pretty out of hand. One of the other local hospitals is running critically low on all sized bags of NS, LR, D5W, 1/3/10/20/60 mL syringes, microbore tubing, and tamiflu. They have resorted to what is pretty much begging other systems for supplies, although they have been burning their bridges for years (In their meetings they will say how they want to "squash" our system, apparently not realizing that a lot of sub-specialists work in both systems) so we have offered to take their patients but that is about it.

I work in the OR. We have a shortage of IVF's and urged to be frugal with LR. Sterile Saline 1L bottles are also obsolete and were using about four 250mL mini bottles to equate. We also have a huge shortage on mesh for hernias, suture, Argon gas, SCD sleeves, the inner part of the suction canisters, sterile water bags and so on. Every day is a struggle. It's BAD!

The newest I've heard is a shortage on masks for the flu. I'm not sure where those are manufactured but this is getting ridiculous.

We had a shortage in Australia at the height of flu outbreak in our winter. Took a while to source another supplier.... had to order face masks with full shield.

We had a shortage in Australia at the height of flu outbreak in our winter. Took a while to source another supplier.... had to order face masks with full shield.

The shields are a major pain in the rear. I have only had to wear one with one patient in almost 20 years of nursing and it was practically impossible. The patient was HIV and HepC positive and had been spewing blood so in order to avoid getting sprayed when suctioning him I played it safe and wore a mask with a shield....I could not see half the time because the darn shield would fog up within a few seconds.

To make matters worse the patient was a prisoner and the guard was chuckling his butt off watching me try to work with the mask fogging while he tapped away at his smart phone. I wouldn't be surprised if I was on social media in some form that day.

our pharmacy has a ton of med shortages, we arent allowed to piggyback medications with NS if they dont have running fluids. A lot of our suppliers have been changed or substituted and we are also out of potassium diluted mixes.

I was working in pediatrics during the H1N1 epidemic in 2009. We were admitting kids to the treatment rooms, empty beds in PACU, empty beds in various ICUs...basically anything short of putting them in the hallway. Any patient over the age of 14 was being shipped to adult floors.

We ran critically short on masks that year. It got so bad at one point that we were each assigned a N95 respirator, wrote our name on it in sharpie marker, and used it for the duration of shifts. This was at a very large trauma referral center!

We banned visitors in our pediatric hospital that year, other than parents. It was nice.

I haven't seen the fluid shortages affect the hospital I liaise at but in my home infusion pharmacy, we have increased our use of IVP drugs.

Fentanyl. Fentanyl for everyone!!!