Trustees hear emergency preparedness, Ebola plan

Director of nursing Barbara Griswold spoke with the Washington County Hospital and Clinics (WCHC) Board of Trustees on the hospital's emergency preparedness plan and how the hospital would deal with an Ebola patient should one arrive at the hospital or clinics at the trustees' monthly meeting on Oct. 30.

Griswold said that WCHC has a written emergency preparedness plan that addresses several kinds of emergencies, including severe weather, chemical spills, the loss of utilities and more. The plan includes how a patient with Ebola would be treated at the hospital.

WCHC CEO Dennis Hunger said last Thursday that staff were getting three or four updates a day. He said that continues to evolve and the hospital is getting information from the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics (UIHC) and state and national hospital associations, in addition to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the state and local public health departments.

Griswold said the CDC has distributed a set of procedures on how the hospital should handle an Ebola patient.

She explained some basic facts about Ebola. She said there are five hospitals in the United States designated for Ebola patients, and there are three hospitals in Iowa, including UIHC, where patients could be transferred to. An Ebola patient could be kept at WCHC for 24 to 48 hours before moving on to a different facility.

WCHC has protective gear for hospital staff to wear in case someone came in with the disease. She said medical personnel are practicing how to put on and take off the protective gear.

The Iowa Department of Public Health and the Washington County Public Health Department are also resources for WCHC.