UMC screening hospital visitors, has isolation rooms in response to virus threat
EL PASO, Texas -- With the coronavirus hitting the United States as it has, the Borderland is preparing for anyone who may show signs.
University Medical Center is on the front lines battling the spread. The hospital has added some new precautions to keep patients and staff safe.
First off, there are now only two entrances to the hospital. At those entrances are guards that screen everyone coming in, asking whether you have any symptoms of the virus. Next, they ask Centers for Disease Control approved questions about whether you've traveled to China, Iran or have been in contact with anyone who has? Those who pass the screening are given a wrist band and admitted in.
UMC has isolation rooms that keep the air you are breathing in the room so that you can not spread a virus to the rest of the hospital.
After you leave that room, the staff cleans it from top to bottom. Once the physical cleaning is done, a robot is brought into the room that shoots ultra violet light killing any germs and bacteria that may still exist.
In November, the hospital did Ebola situational training that now comes in handy because of the coronavirus pandemic we are experiencing now.
Miguel Rivera, an infection control practitioner at UMC, wanted to reassure the Borderland that the hospital can handle what ever comes through the door: "We are never worried, but prepared."
