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Hospital conducts drill in case of Ebola infection
The Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. did a containment drill last Thursday at the public hospital to prepare its staff in case the deadly Ebola virus reaches the CNMI.
CHCC chief executive officer Esther Muña said they started planning to hold the exercise immediately upon the confirmation of an active Ebola case in Texas.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has guidelines on developing protocols and the drill provides an opportunity for CHCC’s medical staff and administration to evaluate the needs of the hospital that will ensure containment of the infectious disease, safety of the staff, other patients, and the entire community.
During the drill, the “patient” (who is not really infected) was brought by her spouse at about 1pm Thursday to CHC, complaining of fever, nausea, and vomiting. The “victim” and her spouse reportedly had recently traveled to Liberia.
The “patient” was isolated in the Emergency Room and was treated by ER and Internal Medicine physicians with full body personal protective equipment called Tyvek suits.
After the drill, a “hotwash” was conducted to go over the observers’ findings and come up with recommendations on areas of improvement.
Attending the small meeting was the hospital’s preparedness director, facilities director, hospital administrator, Commonwealth Health Center nursing director, infection control staff, lab manager, Medical Affairs director, Emergency Room physicians, internal medicine physicians, and the “patient.”
Muña said they will be summarizing all the findings and recommendations.
Some of the findings included confusion on when to use the Tyvek suits.
Muña said Internal Medicine proceeded quickly to using the Tyvek suits and that security needs strengthening to minimize contact.
“Asking patients directly if they had been in contact with anyone with Ebola or had traveled in areas of outbreak was absolutely necessary,” she said. “This was only a first of more drills and training in order to prepare our staff.”
