Hospital pharmacists are scrambling for alternatives to drugs and medical supplies that are made in Puerto Rico, where production has halted due to the damage caused by Hurricane Maria.

The New York Times said among the items which are becoming harder to acquire are mesh for repairing hernias, surgical scalpels and Mini-Bag, a Baxter product used to dilute drugs. The Cleveland Clinic uses 34,000 of the bags every month.

The shortages have the attention of Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD, telling Congress, “We have found no firm operating above 70 percent of their normal operation.”

As more hospitals realize the impact this will have on their supplies, administrators will race to stock up, creating a domino effect of scarcities on a wider range of products.

“With drug shortages, it is often a race to see who can find a supply of the drug on shortage and also any alternatives,” said Philip J. Trapskin, who is the program manager of medication use strategy and innovation at UW Health, the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s health system. “We have been able to get what we need to avoid disruptions in patient care, but the mix of products is not ideal and there are no guarantees we will continue to get the supplies we need.”

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