These natural disasters have greatly affected health systems, forcing ASCs to close their doors, either temporarily or permanently, while creating global medical supply shortages.
Here are 10 ways that ASCs, health systems and suppliers have responded to widespread natural disasters this year:
1. Shuffling staff members: Following wildfires in Los Angeles, several ASCs closed to allow their employees to staff emergency rooms and hospitals to help out with patient care where needed.
2. Moving patient cases: In many cases, ASCs that were forced to close due to fire damage worked together with health systems to relocate surgical cases.
3. Temporarily shutting their doors: Several health systems were forced to close, not just in the wake of fire in Los Angeles, but also in the wake of Hurricane Milton in Florida and Hurricane Beryl in Texas.
4. Postponing procedures: Several hospitals and health systems have had to postpone procedures due to obstacles in securing IV fluids after flooding in the wake of Hurricane Helene damaged a Baxter International plant in Marion, N.C.
5. Suppliers reopening: Baxter has officially restarted all 10 manufacturing lines at the Marion, N.C., facility.
6. ASCs readily adapt due to their size and structure: “It’s easier with an ASC,” Ken Schaff, regional ASC administrator at HCA Surgery Ventures, told Becker’s. “It’s smaller and more nimble than hospitals. We communicate directly with our clinical staff. We keep supplies in a single location for better control.” Every day, staff retrieve their daily work and log any IV solution, allowing the team to maintain a daily inventory and stay ahead of their usage, Mr. Schaff said.
7. Learning lessons from former shortages: Many ASCs learned the importance of being nimble and streamlining communications when dealing with supply shortages brought on by the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Supply allocations have also been added to the mix of the pandemic pain. We have increased our budget reserve for essential supplies instead of buying when needed,” Catherine Llavanes, CEO of Sante Health Partners in Los Angeles, told Becker’s. “This will help ensure that there will be minimal disruption if there is a supply shortage. We try to be prepared and stay in tune with the daily changes in emergency management in each state we operate.”
8. Maintain a supply strategy: Supply costs make up a median 28% of an ASC’s revenue, according to Avanza’s 2022 “Key ASC Benchmarks and Industry Figures” report, and the average ASC spends about $2.9 million on drugs and other medical supplies. “The biggest lesson from this situation is the need for redundancy in vendors,” Mr. Schaff said. “Relying solely on one vendor, like Baxter, can be risky, especially if a natural disaster affects their supply. We need to diversify our supply sources to prevent crises from crippling our operations.”
9. Emphasize communication: Post Falls, Idaho-based Pleasant View Surgery Center is emphasizing communication amid shortages, Administrator Molly Gallant told Becker’s. “We are collaborating closely with our anesthesia providers to use IV fluids more conservatively while ensuring our patients maintain a stable, euvolemic condition,” she told Becker’s. For shorter procedures or those utilizing total intravenous anesthesia anesthesia, her team is using saline locks to conserve fluids for more complex surgeries, such as total joint replacements.
10. Diversifying vendors: Patrick Rehm, administrator of Georgetown (Texas) Surgery Center, told Becker’s his team is “securing accounts with multiple IV solution vendors” and working with anesthesia to use saline syringes with hep locks for smaller gastrointestinal, ophthalmology and pain cases.
