One day after visiting the Cleveland and Akron areas last weekend, a Dallas nurse was diagnosed with Ebola virus and may have been contagious while on her return flight home. There are now 16 people in both Cuyahoga County and Summit County that are being monitored by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and one person that is being officially quarantined. Now that the deadly virus has arrived in the U.S. and has had an encounter in Cleveland, local officials are stepping up their efforts to make sure that our area hospitals, health organizations and safety forces can handle the possible threat of Ebola. According to local hospital sources, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson is designating a central hospital for all Ebola cases in Cuyahoga County to go to, and will decide between either MetroHealth Medical Center or the Cleveland Clinic.
Officials have talked about setting up one designated hospital in each U.S. state to handle any Ebola cases that arise in that state, but so far this has just been talk and no efforts have been made to make any such arrangements. Cuyahoga County is taking matters into its own hands and is looking to centralize Ebola-related care in Cleveland, at either MetroHealth Medical Center or the Cleveland Clinic. The final decision has not yet been revealed.
There are just four of the highest level (level 4) biocontainment patient care units in the U.S. that are designed to deal with the likes of Ebola. Unfortunately, none of these level four biocontainment units are located in Ohio, and include: the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in Bethesda, Md.; the medical center at the University of Nebraska; the Emory University Hospital in Atlanta; and St. Patrick Hospital near the Rocky Mountain Labs in Missoula, Mont. Nebraska has 10 of these beds available, while the other three hospitals have three beds available each.
Centralizing Ebola patient care at one hospital within the county would make it easier to be sure that a dedicated staff is well-trained in handling the deadly disease and would minimize travel and the number of people that an Ebola-infected individual would come into to contact with because they would not have to be moved around.
MetroHealth earlier this week indicated that they have been preparing for the arrival of Ebola cases in the area, and conducted an Ebola drill this week to prepare and train staff. MetroHealth has an isolation room that would be used for any potential Ebola patients.
Cleveland Clinic has also indicated that they have been conducting on-going Ebola training, and have trained nurses who have volunteered to be a part of the Ebola Response Team. They have set up a dedicated internal website for Ebola information, have set up a 24/7 internal phone line for any Ebola related questions, and are putting together an educational video on Ebola.