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August 5, 2024

CT hospitals managing after manufacturer warns of ‘reduced availability’ of its blood test tubes

HBJ PHOTO | DAVID KRECHEVSKY Dr. Ulysses Wu is Hartford HealthCare’s chief epidemiologist and system director for infectious diseases.
By David Krechevsky

Connecticut hospitals so far say they are managing after the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) recently issued an alert about the potential for a shortage of blood test tubes.

The alert followed a letter sent by manufacturer Becton Dickinson on June 11 that warned customers they may experience “intermittent delays” in the supply of some blood “culture media over the coming months.”

The letter stated that Becton, which has a medical syringe production plant in North Canaan, has seen “reduced availability of plastic bottles” from its supplier that has prevented it from manufacturing enough of its BACTEC blood culture test vials to meet “full global demand.”

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Blood test tubes manufactured by Becton Dickinson.

A shortage of blood test tubes has the potential to affect patient care in a variety of ways. The vials are used to help diagnose illnesses or infections and determine treatments, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Becton did not disclose the name of its supplier, nor how many vials it normally produces or how that amount has been reduced. The company did say it expects its “ongoing mitigation efforts” to increase supply to meet global demand.

Troy Kirkpatrick, Becton’s vice president for public relations, said the company has implemented “various mitigation measures, including working directly with our raw material supplier of molded bottles to improve production line efficiency and output.”

Kirkpatrick added that, “as an additional stopgap measure, our former supplier of glass vials will restart production to help fill the intermittent gap in supply.”

In its alert, the FDC recommended laboratories and healthcare providers “consider conservation strategies to prioritize the use of blood culture media bottles, preserving the supply for patients at highest risk.”

'A concern'

Connecticut hospitals contacted by the Hartford Business Journal said they’ve been able to deal with the issue so far.

“The international shortage of blood culture bottles is obviously a concern, but we are managing the situation throughout our health system and continue to monitor it regularly with our suppliers,” Yale New Haven Health said in a statement.

Yale New Haven Health is the state’s largest health system that owns five hospitals.

Hartford HealthCare, the state’s second-largest health system that owns seven hospitals, also is managing the situation, according to Dr. Ulysses Wu, HHC’s chief epidemiologist and system director for infectious diseases.

Wu said HHC is not yet experiencing a shortage, but understands that could change.

“We are always concerned when there’s a shortage of anything, not just blood culture bottles, because it changes how one has to practice, and we have to be more judicious,” Wu said.

“We in medicine don’t love shortages,” he added, “but I am confident in the ability of the people that I work with … that we’re going to be able to manage this.”

Wu, however, said the potential for a shortage also represents an opportunity for hospitals to reassess their blood culture practices.

“Some of the data suggests that a lot of the blood cultures that are drawn out are probably unnecessary to a certain extent,” he said. “A lot of times, people just draw blood cultures to be more comfortable, kind of a ‘just in case.’”

Wu could not say definitively how many blood culture vials hospitals in Hartford HealthCare’s system use, but estimated it’s “tens of thousands” annually combined.

“There is obviously a little bit of waste, or a lot of waste, depending on how you look at it,” he said. “So, I think there is good reason to maybe reduce that waste.”

He noted, for example, that each time blood is drawn for a culture, it’s drawn through a patient’s skin.

“There are what we call false positive contaminations of those blood cultures” that can be caused by something on the skin, Wu said. “Because of that, it can lead to unnecessary antibiotics, unnecessary testing, as well as additional length of stay. So, that can have a deleterious effect as well.”

He said contemplating these issues is important, including as a way to minimize the impact of any shortage.

“This is me trying to make lemonade out of lemons,” Wu said. “But, if there is indeed a critical shortage, there is always a concern that we will not be able to utilize the proper resources to do what is appropriate in terms of our diagnostics. So, that is a concern.”

The FDA said it is continuing to monitor the situation, and will inform the public if “significant new information” becomes available.

Becton Dickinson, meanwhile, has created a website to provide updates on the supply issue at https://bdbactec-update.com.

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