Baxter North Cove Facility (Marion, n.c.)

The facility experienced water damage and the plant is currently closed due to limited access that has been caused by roadway collapse and flooding. [...] The extent of the damage is still being assessed, and Baxter is working with local, state, and federal officials to evaluate the situation and develop a plan to restore operations as quickly as possible. [...] The North Cove facility produces large volume intravenous (IV) fluids (e.g, saline, dextrose, lactated ringers) and peritoneal dialysis solutions. This facility supplies an estimated 60% of large volume IV fluids used in the US. [...] North Cove is the primary manufacturing facility for large volume IV fluids; however, Mexico and Spain are additional manufacturing facilities Baxter has available as a redundancy measure. [...] • The company will also leverage its global manufacturing network to mitigate potential supply impacts while efforts are made to fully restore manufacturing operations at the North Cove facility. [...] • Vizient is communicating with Baxter to assess the potential supply constraints resulting from any production delay. [...] Timelines and impact on current and future production at the North Cove facility are unknown at this time. [...] • Vizient is working with alternate manufacturers of potentially impacted products to assess their ability to supply and their capabilities to increase production if necessary. [...] Providers should: • Hospitals and health systems are advised to activate their internal drug shortage committees and inform the appropriate multidisciplinary stakeholders of the impacted Baxter facility. [...] • Notify C-Suite level executives of the impacted Baxter facility to ensure appropriate communication of potential supply constraints to the local media and associated medical boards. • Each hospital and health system should evaluate and ensure all inventory counts are accurate and up to date.