China Lockdown and Dye Shortage Lead Hospitals to Cancel Medical Scans
China’s Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns have led to a shortage of a dye widely used in medical scans, prompting U.S. hospitals including the Mayo Clinic to ration supplies, postpone procedures or switch to less optimal imaging.
The shortage arose in recent weeks for iodinated contrast media products including Omnipaque, made by
General Electric Co.
’s GE Healthcare unit at a plant in Shanghai. Omnipaque is given by intravenous injection to patients before imaging procedures to make internal organs, blood and vessels more visible in procedures such as CT scans.
The Shanghai plant was shut down for several weeks after Chinese authorities imposed tight restrictions on people’s movement in the city to try to squash a Covid-19 outbreak, GE Healthcare said.
As a result, some hospitals in the U.S. have seen incoming Omnipaque supplies fall 80% compared with before the shortage, and have only days left of inventory, said
Matthew Davenport,
vice chair of the American College of Radiology’s commission on quality and safety.
“It’s not an overstatement to say it’s going to be millions of exams that are affected by this and it’s going to last for months,” said Dr. Davenport, a professor of radiology and urology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich.
GE Healthcare said it has since reopened the plant, reaching 50% capacity. “We are working to return to full capacity as soon as local authorities allow,” a GE Healthcare spokesman said.
It has also shifted some production of Omnipaque to other factories, including one in Ireland.
Yet the disruption could mean shortages persist at U.S. hospitals into the summer, according to doctors and hospital officials.
“Many places have less than a week on hand of their usual use,” said
Erin Fox,
senior pharmacy director of University of Utah Health and a tracker of drug shortages. “They have to find a way to stretch supplies and cancel procedures.”
The American College of Radiology issued guidance for how hospitals can mitigate their shortages, such as reducing waste of contrast agents and using alternative scans that don’t require contrast agents.
The risk of running some scans without contrast media, however, is that doctors might miss detecting something, such as a small cancerous growth, Dr. Davenport said.
The shortage of contrast agents such as Omnipaque is a byproduct of the Covid-19 lockdowns in Shanghai and other parts of China that have been disrupting supply chains across a range of industries.
Omnipaque is used in scans to diagnose diseases including cancer and trauma injuries, and for guiding certain heart procedures.
Many hospitals rely heavily on only one of the suppliers for contrast media, either GE Healthcare or Bracco Imaging SpA of Italy, which makes a similar contrast agent for imaging procedures.
Bracco has recently received an influx of orders for its product, called Isovue, as a result of the Omnipaque shortage, the company said in a May 6 letter to customers that was seen by The Wall Street Journal.
Yet Bracco said it planned to give priority to its existing customers, and it encouraged customers to continue to place normal-size orders and avoid overstocking. Bracco didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Bracco’s plan means the shortage is especially acute for hospitals that get all or most of their supplies from GE Healthcare, said Dr. Davenport.
“The allocation being put forward is very small,” said
Eric Tichy,
division chair of supply-chain management at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. “It doesn’t allow us to keep up with normal operations.”
“‘It’s not an overstatement to say it’s going to be millions of exams that are affected by this and it’s going to last for months.’”
Mayo has performed some scans without the contrast dye or used lower doses where appropriate, and has rescheduled some nonurgent exams, Mr. Tichy said.
The University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital is rescheduling elective imaging procedures and is running many scans without the contrast media, said
Kierstin Kennedy,
interim chief medical officer.
In some cases, the hospital is switching to other types of scans, such as magnetic resonance imaging. UAB is reserving contrast media for procedures on patients with life-threatening conditions such as trauma and certain heart procedures, Dr. Kennedy said.
The University of Virginia health system in Charlottesville, Va., said it is giving priority to imaging procedures for patients with critical health needs and for lifesaving treatments
More than 680 CT imaging appointments that were scheduled between May 6 and June 30 have been rescheduled, shifted to a different imaging technique or canceled, a UVA spokesman said.
It projects the shortage to last through at least July 1, according to information the health system posted online.
Write to Peter Loftus at [email protected]
Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
China’s Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns have led to a shortage of a dye widely used in medical scans, prompting U.S. hospitals including the Mayo Clinic to ration supplies, postpone procedures or switch to less optimal imaging.
The shortage arose in recent weeks for iodinated contrast media products including Omnipaque, made by
General Electric Co.
’s GE Healthcare unit at a plant in Shanghai. Omnipaque is given by intravenous injection to patients before imaging procedures to make internal organs, blood and vessels more visible in procedures such as CT scans.
The Shanghai plant was shut down for several weeks after Chinese authorities imposed tight restrictions on people’s movement in the city to try to squash a Covid-19 outbreak, GE Healthcare said.
As a result, some hospitals in the U.S. have seen incoming Omnipaque supplies fall 80% compared with before the shortage, and have only days left of inventory, said
Matthew Davenport,
vice chair of the American College of Radiology’s commission on quality and safety.
“It’s not an overstatement to say it’s going to be millions of exams that are affected by this and it’s going to last for months,” said Dr. Davenport, a professor of radiology and urology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich.
GE Healthcare said it has since reopened the plant, reaching 50% capacity. “We are working to return to full capacity as soon as local authorities allow,” a GE Healthcare spokesman said.
It has also shifted some production of Omnipaque to other factories, including one in Ireland.
Yet the disruption could mean shortages persist at U.S. hospitals into the summer, according to doctors and hospital officials.
“Many places have less than a week on hand of their usual use,” said
Erin Fox,
senior pharmacy director of University of Utah Health and a tracker of drug shortages. “They have to find a way to stretch supplies and cancel procedures.”
The American College of Radiology issued guidance for how hospitals can mitigate their shortages, such as reducing waste of contrast agents and using alternative scans that don’t require contrast agents.
The risk of running some scans without contrast media, however, is that doctors might miss detecting something, such as a small cancerous growth, Dr. Davenport said.
The shortage of contrast agents such as Omnipaque is a byproduct of the Covid-19 lockdowns in Shanghai and other parts of China that have been disrupting supply chains across a range of industries.
Omnipaque is used in scans to diagnose diseases including cancer and trauma injuries, and for guiding certain heart procedures.
Many hospitals rely heavily on only one of the suppliers for contrast media, either GE Healthcare or Bracco Imaging SpA of Italy, which makes a similar contrast agent for imaging procedures.
Bracco has recently received an influx of orders for its product, called Isovue, as a result of the Omnipaque shortage, the company said in a May 6 letter to customers that was seen by The Wall Street Journal.
Yet Bracco said it planned to give priority to its existing customers, and it encouraged customers to continue to place normal-size orders and avoid overstocking. Bracco didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Bracco’s plan means the shortage is especially acute for hospitals that get all or most of their supplies from GE Healthcare, said Dr. Davenport.
“The allocation being put forward is very small,” said
Eric Tichy,
division chair of supply-chain management at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. “It doesn’t allow us to keep up with normal operations.”
“‘It’s not an overstatement to say it’s going to be millions of exams that are affected by this and it’s going to last for months.’”
Mayo has performed some scans without the contrast dye or used lower doses where appropriate, and has rescheduled some nonurgent exams, Mr. Tichy said.
The University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital is rescheduling elective imaging procedures and is running many scans without the contrast media, said
Kierstin Kennedy,
interim chief medical officer.
In some cases, the hospital is switching to other types of scans, such as magnetic resonance imaging. UAB is reserving contrast media for procedures on patients with life-threatening conditions such as trauma and certain heart procedures, Dr. Kennedy said.
The University of Virginia health system in Charlottesville, Va., said it is giving priority to imaging procedures for patients with critical health needs and for lifesaving treatments
More than 680 CT imaging appointments that were scheduled between May 6 and June 30 have been rescheduled, shifted to a different imaging technique or canceled, a UVA spokesman said.
It projects the shortage to last through at least July 1, according to information the health system posted online.
Write to Peter Loftus at [email protected]
Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
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