On September 29, 2024, Hurricane Helene hit the southeastern United States, causing damage to one of the largest manufacturing plants for intravenous fluids that led to supply chain shortages of this widely used treatment. Following this event, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommended that hospitals and medical centers initiate approaches to conserve intravenous fluids. A team led by researchers at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago have generated findings that provide a better understanding about how these adaptations to the use of intravenous fluids influenced care so as to guide efforts toward more resource-conscious practices.
The team evaluated changes in intravenous fluid use, including ones resulting from strategies adopted to conserve intravenous fluids, and clinical outcomes (intravenous fluid administration, admission, 7-day return visits, return visits with admission, and blood testing) among children aged 17 years and younger cared for in emergency departments. According to findings of their study published in a research letter in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, the use of intravenous fluid in the pediatric emergency department decreased following the hurricane. They also noted a reduction in blood testing and hospitalizations, and there was no change in unscheduled return visits to emergency departments that led to hospitalization. The change in the care of patients during the intravenous fluid shortage, the researchers conclude, means there are opportunities to improve the delivery of care in the future.
Lurie Children’s researchers who collaborated on the study are Abidatou Diasso-Adamou, BSPH, Nursing Assistant, Emergency Medicine, and Sriram Ramgopal, MD, Attending Physician, Emergency Medicine.
Pediatric research at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago is conducted through Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute.
