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door.
"It's not if it occurs, it's when," says Ms. Yost. "In this day and age,
you're only 24 hours away for something (like Ebola) to come into
your hospital."
Educating staff is key to the hospital's preparations. The infection
control team distributed a PowerPoint presentation that reviews the
basics: incubation time, signs and symptoms, how the lab confirms it,
early recognition, isolation and treatment.
Mary Wilson, BSN, RN, CNOR, West Virginia University's clinical nurse
preceptor/educator, says the hospital has met with different departments
to discuss how each would respond to an Ebola patient, from administra-
tion to the emergency room. The hospital also has volunteers — many
from the ER but some from the OR — who've been undergoing intense
training to learn how to care for an Ebola patient, says Ms. Wilson.
While the hospital has decided patients won't stay at the facility for
treatment, it is equipped to identify and isolate infected patients
before transferring them to a local hospital with the resources to care
for the patient long-term.
The hospital actively monitors patients before they arrive for sur-
gery. The most important question is about recent travel, says Ms.
Wilson. The hospital is also finishing up minor renovations to create a
quarantine space in the ER that would house suspected Ebola
patients. The room, previously a vertical treatment room, has its own
bathroom, is self-contained, has an area for staff to change into PPE
and will be a negative pressure room.
Another key aspect of preparation involves training staff on the PPE
worn when treating infected patients. At the hospital, staff would
wear PAPRs (powered air-purifying respirators) with a hood that com-
pletely covers the worker's head, neck and shoulders, and can then be
tucked into an impermeable suit. Staff also would wear a "bunny suit"
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