Partner Spotlight

By Jonathan Messinger shaunl / E + via Getty Images

For a few months in late 2024, if you looked up in the sky and caught sight of a 747, there was no guarantee people would be sitting in its seats. Instead, what you may have witnessed was a plane with unique passengers: thousands of bags of IV fluid, being flown into the United States.

Those planes were being flown in by Baxter International as it worked to offset a shortage of IV fluids after its North Cove manufacturing facility in Marion, North Carolina was damaged by Hurricane Helene in September 2024. A once-in-a-lifetime storm, the hurricane notoriously traveled deeper into North Carolina than most experts anticipated, causing enormous damage to Baxter’ s facility and the surrounding community. One year later, Baxter’ s operations and supply levels have returned to normal and the story is now familiar to most who work in healthcare, but it’ s worth remembering the recovery efforts that took place at the nation’ s largest IV fluids manu-

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