BUFFALO, N.Y. — Catholic Health has canceled most elective surgeries requiring IV fluids for the rest of the week due to a shortage.

The health system says the Baxter Drug Manufacturing facility in North Carolina was impacted by Hurricane Helene.

"We're here today because Baxter supplies about 60% of the IV fluids for the country. They are a sole provider of IV fluids for Catholic Health," said Victor Filadora, Catholic Health chief physician executive.

Catholic Health is now one of many health care providers across the country preparing for what they're calling "significant shortages."

"You know, they've said that the plant, they think, is going to come online in 60 to 90 days,” he added. “That's three months. We'll all run dry in three months.”

With decades in practice, Filadora knows the importance of a simple bag of fluids can't be understated.

"It is an integral part of the practice of medicine, really, in the acute care environment, right? When you go to your doctor's office, you're not getting fluids. But if something happens to you and you're admitted to an acute care facility, that is the mainstay, you know?” he said. “When the first thing that you get to the (Emergency Room), if they're going to treat you, is they put an IV in you and they hang a bag of fluid. But what's in that bag?"

Especially for those in emergency and high trauma situations, the supply has to hold for now, prompting Catholic Health to put a hold on elective surgeries in the short-term.

"It's a very difficult decision because obviously those patients with elective surgeries need care as well, but our primary focus really has to be on those patients that are already under our care," Filadora said. "There's a couple things you can do. You know, you could look to get more in from someplace else. You can look to conserve in your population today so you're not giving people as much as you would give them. Or you can decrease the amount of people that you can take care for in a short period of time that you're not currently taking care for."

They're evaluating the situation day by day and also trying to work with the other three companies that make up the IV fluid market on the continent. With any headway being made, there's no promises yet.

"We don't know when we're going to resume surgeries,” said Filadora. “It could be next week. It could be the week after. It really depends on our sourcing and our conservation methods."

Methods among other things that will be reassessed with this shortage.

"We've not really critically looked at how we give that because we've not have or had an event like this," said Filadora. "And I think what will come out of this event is we'll look back and say, just like we did [during the COVID-19 pandemic], ‘are there things that we do that we could potentially change?’"

As they look to make those changes, there's one thing Catholic Health and other providers need to get back operating.

"We need to ring the alarm bell to the to the federal government to say, ‘we need your help. This is this is not going to go away,’" said Filadora.

Along those lines, the American Hospital Association has run the flag up to the federal level, imploring Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the current administration to help bump up production elsewhere, while also keeping the recovery efforts at Baxter in North Carolina going to get the facility that usually produces roughly 1.5 million bags of fluids a day back up and running.