Hospitals scramble to avert saline shortage in wake of Puerto Rico disaster

Update: The Food and Drug Administration has given Baxter International permission to import saline and other intravenous solutions from its manufacturing facilities in Australia and Ireland to ease shortages in the United States, according to letters that the company sent its customers on Monday.  

The hurricane that wreaked havoc on Puerto Rico last month has disrupted production of widely used IV solutions. Several prominent hospitals across the country are scrambling to find alternative supplies, change the way they administer drugs and devise backup plans to make the fluids themselves.