Getting wind that some medical facilities still had the contaminated blood thinner among their supplies, the US Food and Drug Administration issued afresh its heparin alerts to hundreds of hospitals, medical societies and pharmaceutical organizations on Friday

The agency stepped up its alerts to hospitals and pharmaceutical organizations about the recall of the contaminated blood thinner. The FDA's alerts included info on the recall from the California Department of Health, the FDA's own recall monitoring, and from Baxter International Inc., the largest supplier of heparin.

The notice read, "Please help FDA spread the word about recalls of injectable heparin products and heparin flush solutions that may be contaminated with oversulfated chondroitin sulfate (OSCS). Affected heparin products have been found in medical care facilities in one state since the recall announcement. Although product recall instructions were widely distributed, they may not have been fully acted upon at all sites where heparin is used.”

Karen Riley, spokeswoman for the FDA said that California authorities had sent a letter out on May 2 about gaps in the recall response. She said, "They checked and found more than a handful of hospitals had not removed all contaminated heparin. We found it on crash carts, catheter labs, and even on one hospital pharmacist's shelf."