The American health-care system’s failure to prepare for Ebola became
even more terrifyingly evident with the revelation that a Dallas nurse traveled
by air after treating a patient who ultimately died from the virus.
Amber Joy Vinson began running a fever the day after her flight,
putting her on the edge of communicability when she crowded among fellow
passengers. Tests later confirmed that she carried the lethal microbe.
Still struggling to get command of the country’s response to Ebola more
than six months after the current outbreak started in West Africa, Centers for
Disease Control Director Thomas Frieden was left to spell out a principle that
should have been set weeks or months ago — and backed up with stringent enforcement.
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“She should not have traveled, should not have been allowed to travel by
virtue she was in an exposed group,” he said obviously.
Later on Wednesday, after cancelling a congressional campaign trip to
Connecticut, President Obama said that the U.S. would become more aggressive in
coordinating the national response to Ebola, including sending a CDC team to
any hospital with a confirmed Ebola case.
But, by stopping short of issuing mandatory protocols, the President
again fell back on the catch-as-catch-can system that produced such disastrous
results in Dallas. He did so at the peril of health-care providers and the
public — because trust that individual hospitals here, there and everywhere
would perform superbly is decidedly misplaced.
Frieden acknowledged that he erred badly in assuming that virtually any
hospital could stop the spread of Ebola by following proper protocols.
Cluelessness about those protocols appears to remain widespread.
Neither Obama nor Frieden had the sense to issue directives with the
firm, clear quality of standards sought by National Nurses United, representing
thousands of nurses across the country.
The group called on Obama to order hospitals to follow procedures used
at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, a leading infectious disease
facility, as well as to set requirements for protective equipment, staffing
levels and training.
Vinson was the second nurse to contract Ebola at Texas Health
Presbyterian Hospital, an institution afflicted with incompetence of such
criminal magnitude that a manslaughter charge might be warranted should a nurse
die.
The outrages there were so extreme — having nurses protect their necks
with tape, failing to isolate an Ebola patient, sending crucial medical tests
through routine delivery systems — that it would be easy to see the hospital’s
failings as atypical.
But no such conclusion is warranted at this time.
A webinar offered to health-care professionals by experts at Nebraska
and Emory Healthcare, another center of excellence, documented the huge
complexities of confronting Ebola.
Every hospital department, from the emergency room to anesthesiology to
environmental management, must be trained. Lab tests must be conducted with
sophisticated protective equipment and should be done in a special location,
because a spill would require closing a hospital’s entire lab for decontamination.
As for protective garb, it’s best used by “dedicated staff with years
of training.”
In interviews Wednesday, city Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett,
Health and Hospitals Corp. President Dr. Ramanathan Raju and Office of
Emergency Management Commissioner Joe Esposito all said they believe city
hospitals are properly geared up.
Lisa Baum, occupational health and safety representative of the New
York State Nurses Association, agreed in regard to Bellevue Hospital,
designated as HHC’s Ebola response institution. After meeting with Bellevue
officials, Baum said the hospital had taken aggressive steps, including
consulting with national experts, providing greater protective gear than
required and conducting extensive training.
Pray that Baum is right, because Obama and Frieden have left New York
and the rest of the country far too much on their own.
