Baxter's Response and Recovery Efforts Following Hurricane Helene

One year after the hurricane, Baxter's Heather Knight, Chief Operating Officer, and Tim Marini, Vice President, Integrated Supply Chain, reflect on the actions that supported an expedited recovery and how we are further strengthening resiliency across our supply chain. 

Risk Preparedness Before the Unexpected Happens 

Baxter's hurricane preparedness plan was activated well ahead of Hurricane Helene's landfall, beginning with the shutdown and evacuation of the plant to protect our employees and the facility, and moving finished inventory to higher ground. These preparedness plans are regularly reviewed and updated based on lessons learned from prior disruptions.  

Swift Action to Curb Impact 

"When the hurricane hit North Cove, the most urgent action for us was making sure our people were safe," said Tim Marini. "Our first calls, texts and outreach were all about confirming that every employee was accounted for. This wasn’t just about a facility, it was about people’s lives, their homes and their wellbeing."    

Given the damage to the community, we quickly established an Employee Support Center a few miles from our plant. There, employees could access vital resources like food, water and toiletries. The Baxter Foundation also donated more than $4 million to provide additional support for local employees and surrounding communities.  

In addition to caring for our people, maintaining supply continuity was a top priority. After an initial 48-hour ship hold, we implemented product allocations to protect and stretch available inventory – particularly the more than 1,200 truckloads of finished product that were salvaged. This was essential to ensuring customers could continue to access available product, albeit at constrained levels. Throughout the year, allocation levels steadily increased, and by the year's end we had achieved 100% allocations across critical IV product codes. 

Leveraging Global Network and Infrastructure to Support Stability 

Within 24 hours of the storm's impact, experts were onsite to evaluate the impact to the facility while also reviewing inventory and substitutions available throughout our global network. Baxter also engaged with multiple levels of government and activated recovery teams across the company to begin remediation efforts at the plant and help protect continuity of supply throughout the recovery process. 

A critical aspect to supporting supply during the recovery process, Baxter secured temporary FDA authorization across 9 of its global manufacturing sites, with first shipments of product arriving in the U.S. just three weeks after the storm. By the end of 2024, nearly 200 airplanes had delivered nearly 18,000 tons of product to the U.S. Baxter also worked with regulators to extend product use dates on over 50 IV and irrigation product codes, to help extend available supply while North Cove operations were restored. 

"What happened after the hurricane was nothing short of remarkable. It took an enormous effort across our entire global network to keep supply moving. That kind of mobilization happens because of the dedication, collaboration and shared commitment of our employees around the world – it truly was a herculean effort," said Heather Knight. 

When it came to remediation at the plant, restarting production at North Cove was more than turning machines back on. Decisions on which lines to prioritize were guided by criticality to patient care and extent of remediation required. In fact, the first line restarted produced half of the site’s one-liter IV solutions, which is the size most used in healthcare settings.   

Continued Investment in Technology 

Baxter's commitment to continuous improvement is longstanding, and the recovery process was supported in part by ongoing investments in our U.S. manufacturing and distribution network.  

Over the last decade, Baxter has invested over $2.5 billion to drive greater efficiency and resilience across our U.S. manufacturing and distribution network. This includes advancing supply chain technologies - to enhance visibility, improve responsiveness and reduce bottlenecks across the network; introducing automation to increase capacity for key product codes; offering customers supply stock programs; and, at North Cove specifically, strengthening the on-site levee to help safeguard from future disruptions. 

"Technology is giving us new ways to strengthen resilience. Tools like AI and IoT can help us identify issues earlier, respond faster, and keep products moving where they’re needed most. These investments go beyond efficiency – they provide reassurance to patients and clinicians that they can rely on Baxter, even when challenges arise," said Tim Marini.  

Capturing Learnings  

After a disruption, it’s critical to evaluate the response and recovery efforts, identifying both strengths and weaknesses. A year after the impact, we're continuing to further strengthen our preparedness and response protocols. For example, we've fine-tuned commercial allocation processes to better align with the time it takes to move products through distribution networks, in an effort to improve transparency and reduce customer frustration. 

"Hurricane Helene was a reminder that supply chains can be disrupted by the unexpected, but it also showed how resilient they can become when investment, innovation, and partnership come together. We are proud of the deep collaboration displayed among employees, government and our customers throughout the recovery process, and we remain committed to preparing not just for the next disruption, but for the future of healthcare delivery so that patients never have to wait for the care they need," said Heather Knight.