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ty, experts still recommend that you be prepared to treat and trans-
port a patient.
"It's highly unlikely someone would come in for ambulatory sur-
gery," says Linda Greene, RN, MPS, CIC, a member of APIC's regulato-
ry review panel, noting that it's still important to "be able to quickly
screen and isolate the patient" if it happens.
Staff should have a "high level of awareness," says Ms. Greene. If they
come across a patient who has traveled recently and is exhibiting signs
and symptoms, they should immediately change into an Ebola spacesuit,
isolate the patient, contact the proper organizations, like the CDC, and
arrange for transport to the nearest hospital accepting infected patients.
So much to do for an invisible enemy that will probably never rear
its ugly head. "There's such a big hype," says Ms. Holody.
"Yes," says Mr. Pankey, "all of these precautions are just-in-case, but
you don't want to figure out what you're going to do when [an infect-
ed patient] walks in the door." OSM
E-mail
letters@outpatientsurgery.net
.
E B O L A V I R U S
ON THE WEB
The CDC's new guidelines for healthcare
workers caring for Ebola patients:
cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/hcp/procedures-for-ppe.html
.
