China’s COVID-19 lockdowns have created shortages in the United States of an injectable dye critical for some medical scans, forcing some hospitals to conserve their supplies and put off procedures.
“We may have to triage more elective procedures,” said Chun “Dan” Choi, vice president of clinical operations for the cardiovascular service line at the New Jersey-based Virtua Health. “We need to be a little more creative and sensitive and diligent in how we continue conducting business as usual.”
GE is one of the biggest suppliers among the small number of companies that produce the dye used in about 50 million medical scans a year nationally, said Matthew Davenport, a radiologist and vice chair of the American College of Radiology’s commission on quality and safety.. The company called the speed and scale of the lockdown “unprecedented,” closing the plant for several weeks. The plant is open again, though not producing at its full capacity.
GE said that the company has shifted production to its Irish plant, and that the situation had improved since the health department released its advisory. The company reached this weekend 60% of its normal production at the Shanghai plant and expected supplies to improve in the coming weeks.WHY WE STAY: As hospitals hemorrhage staff, healthcare professionals share stories of caring and perseverance.
Hospitals use enormous amounts of the contrast dye, said Choi, who noted that a single facility can receive a truckload or more monthly. In some cases, an MRI, CAT, or VQwhich does not require contrast dyes — can be used instead of a CT scan, physicians said. Other procedures that require CT technology, such as scans to determine the effect of cancer treatments on tumors, can be delayed without hurting a patient’s care.
“Without the anatomy of the coronary arteries, we’re not going to be able to know whether we’re in the right vessel, whether we’re in the right region, whether we’re successful,” Choi said. While there are ways hospitals can adapt to the shortage, Davenport said, those adjustments may mean some scans will be slightly less precise or less detailed.
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