Millicent Gist, a receptionist at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, was surprised to hear her facility was an officially designated hospital for people suspected of having Ebola in New York City.
That’s disturbing, Gist said, because she’s often the first person patients talk with when they come to the hospital.
Gist learned of Montefiore’s status at a training session held at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan that drew more than 5,000 city health-care workers. Hosted in part by the Greater New York Hospital Association and a union, the three-hour session was designed to help prepare health workers for the appearance of Ebola in the New York City region. While Mayor Bill de Blasio touted the city’s readiness, many workers in the stands weren’t as convinced.
Hospitals around the U.S. have said they’re working to prepare for a possible Ebola case coming through their doors. The American College of Emergency Physicians will feature Ebola as part of a conference it is holding in Chicago in late October. Meanwhile, Texas Governor Rick Perry held a press conference today to discuss how the state is planning to ward off future cases.
Helene Guss, a spokeswoman for Montefiore, didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Michelle Rosas, a patient service representative at a Far Rockaway medical clinic, said she sees West African patients regularly. Before today’s training, she didn’t know how to react if a patient, or a family member, showed up with a travel history and symptoms of Ebola that can mimic the flu, she said.
Just Masks
“We have a lot of foreigners, we have a lot of Africans,” she said. The only protection health-care workers at the clinic have been given for Ebola, Rosas said, “are masks. We got fitted for that.”
New York health officials have said they’re preparing. “We recognize that health care workers in New York City are concerned about their risk, which is why we’ve taken such extensive steps to provide them with the information and resources they need,” said Jean Weinberg, a spokeswoman for the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
Ebola has heightened anxiety in health-care facilities around the U.S. after Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian national, flew to Texas with the virus.
Nurses Infected
Duncan died in a Dallas hospital on Oct. 8, but not before infecting two nurses. The nurses, now being cared for in hospitals in Atlanta and Bethesda, Maryland, were possibly infected because they were unfamiliar with their protective equipment, said Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC has since expanded its training programs on the equipment and tightened hospital protocols on Ebola.
“This affects everyone at every level,” said New York Governor Andrew Cuomo at the session. “This is doctors, this is nurses, this is hospital administrators, this is lab techs, this is radiology technicians, this is food service, this is laundry, this is security, this is transportation. Don’t say this isn’t me.”
“We know that we’re ready,” De Blasio said. “We have the best-trained people and the nature of the best is to keep working at being the best.”
No New York Cases
While hospitals in the New York region have had patients suspected of being infected with Ebola, none of the cases have been confirmed. Several nurses at the session said, though, that it was only happenstance that Ebola appeared first in Texas, rather than in New York.
“To be honest we hadn’t had any preparation” to deal with someone with Ebola symptoms, said Adrienne Channer, a unit clerk at a local medical center that sometimes treats emergency cases. “This is why they sent us here. We’ve just been hearing about it on the news so far.”
“It is scary,” added Lesline McGrowder a nurse’s aide. “It’s just like when AIDS came out, but we’re going to get over it once we get educated.”
The session, organized by 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, a union group, was designed to teach everything from how to put on and remove protective equipment, to how to dispose of hazardous waste.
At times, workers at the meeting seemed surprised by the messages they were hearing. For instance, loud gasps came from the audience when demonstrators showed it was necessary to use alcohol-based disinfectant more than five times when removing protective equipment.
Meanwhile, cheers erupted when Mary Bassett, commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, read aloud a question that asked if hospital administrators would be held to account if they didn’t adequately prepare.
“The state health commissioner has issued commissioner’s orders requiring compliance,” she responded. Additionally, two weeks ago, Governor Cuomo ordered all hospitals go through an Ebola preparedness drill.
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