Monday, October 13, 2014
Stepping Into It
A nurse caring for the now -deceased Ebola patient in Dallas has come down with the disease. The Center for Disease Control proclaimed publicly that the hospital failed to follow protocol. This has ignited a backlash of criticism against the CDC and the care of Ebola patients. Some say US hospitals are not equipped or trained to handle the disease. The CDC says any hospital following the right procedures should be able to handle an Ebola patient. Let one more nurse in Dallas come down with the disease and the CDC will have a major challenge on its hands. Should it, as some critics said, set aside a hospital in each city and region to handle Ebola patients after rigorous staff training? It will be hard to avoid that advice if another nurse or doctor in Dallas with access to the patient becomes ill. It is more than a PR crisis for the CDC. It is a systemic situation in which US hospitals have been found wanting, and it will require wholesale changes in operations to bring them up to the standard for handling rare diseases.
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