UMC preparing and expanding possible Ebola response
In the Borderland, the response to any possible cases of Ebola making their way to our region is ramping up. Local hospitals are training and preparing, even beyond dealing with just an isolated case.
Staff with University Medical Center said they’re ready for a potential Ebola patient in the city. But they’re also working to prepare a response for if the situation were to be even worse than what’s going on in Dallas.
“To say that everyone in this country is 100 percent ready to manage it if someone would walk in the door, I don’t think is realistic at this time,” said Eric Johansen, managing nurse for the emergency department at UMC. “I think everyone is still scrambling to obtain the equipment they need to take care of more than one patient that potentially could have Ebola.”
UMC currently has at 6 rooms that could be used to quarantine and treat Ebola patients, but standard equipment could only handle those patients for about three to five days before the hospital would need outside support to continue.
It’s trying to expand that capability now.
“We do have rooms that are readily available to use,” Johansen said. “However if there was a large influx, we would have to get that equipment in and create additional rooms.”
Johansen said UMC is stepping up it’s training and exercises on using personal protective equipment, or PPE, because it doesn’t matter what kind of gear you’re wearing if you don’t know how to use it. In particular, there’s a focus how to remove equipment while avoiding contact with the disease that may be on the outside.
“There’s always a risk,” Johansen said. “No matter what level of protection you put on, if you’re not paying attention to how you take it off, when you take it off, that’s when you make yourself vulnerable to cross contamination.”
Some of the specialized equipment UMC needs includes advanced waste systems. In a quarantine situation nothing, not even sewage, can leave a room where there’s Ebola contamination.
Johansen said UMC is in a similar situation to hospitals nationwide trying to get that and other equipment, with demand outstripping supply.
