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U.S. nurses say they are unprepared to handle Ebola patients

Sun, 2014-10-05 11:02 — mike kraft

REUTERS                         Oct 3. 2014

By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Nurses, the frontline care providers in U.S. hospitals, say they are untrained and unprepared to handle patients arriving in their hospital emergency departments infected with Ebola.

Many say they have gone to hospital managers, seeking training on how to best care for patients and protect themselves and their families from contracting the deadly disease....

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has repeatedly said that U.S. hospitals are prepared to handle such patients. Many infectious disease experts agree with that assessment.

... Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas that is now caring for the first Ebola patient to be diagnosed in this country had completed Ebola training just before Thomas Eric Duncan arrived in their emergency department on Sept. 26. But despite being told that Duncan had recently traveled from Liberia, hospital staff failed to recognize the Ebola risk and sent him home, where he spent another two days becoming sicker and more infectious.

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Dallas Hospital Alters Account, Raising Questions on Ebola Case

Sun, 2014-10-05 10:12 — mike kraft

NEW YORK TIMES          Oct. 3, 2014

DALLAS TEX.      

On Thursday, the hospital, Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, released a statement essentially blaming a flaw in its electronic health records system for its decision to send the patient — Thomas E. Duncan, a Liberian national visiting his girlfriend and relatives in the United States — home the first time he visited its emergency room, Sept. 25. It said there were separate “workflows” for doctors and nurses in the records so the doctors did not receive the information that he had come from Africa.

But on Friday evening, the hospital effectively retracted that portion of its statement, saying that “there was no flaw” in its electronic health records system. The hospital said “the patient’s travel history was documented and available to the full care team in the electronic health record (E.H.R.), including within the physician’s workflow.”

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Are Hospitals Prepared for Ebola?

Sat, 2014-10-04 21:40 — Kathy Gilbeaux

cnn.com - October 1, 2014

CNN's Jake Tapper speaks to Gavin Macgregor-Skinner and Jeffery Stern. With the first Ebola diagnosis in the U.S., is the country prepared to handle a potential outbreak?

http://thelead.blogs.cnn.com/2014/10/01/only-four-u-s-hospitals-prepared-for-outbreak/

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Texas Ebola Watch Eyes 50 People, 10 at 'High Risk'

Sat, 2014-10-04 17:08 — Norea
By SABINA GHEBREMEDHIN & MEGHAN KENEALLY - Oct 3, 2014 - ABC News

The number of people being monitored in Texas for possible exposure to an infected Ebola patient has been narrowed to 50, with 10 of those believed to be at "high risk" for exposure, Texas health officials said today.

The effort to prevent any spread of the often lethal virus became more focused on a day when the family of Thomas Eric Duncan said he appeared to weaken, and a special cleaning crew began sanitizing the Dallas apartment he was staying at when he became ill.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/texas-ebola-watch-eyes-50-people-10-high/story?id=25938924

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Dallas Hospital says software flaw led to initial release of Ebola patent

Fri, 2014-10-03 09:58 — mike kraft

Update with additional information and text of the hospital statement  (scroll down).

 

5 NBC News Chicago

 Oct 3, 2014 • Updated at 7:53 AM CDT

The Dallas Hospital that sent Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan home said a software flaw, and not human error, caused doctors to miss the diagnosis, NBC News is reporting.

The electronic health records (EHR) system that the hospital uses has a separate workflow for physicians and nurses. The travel history of the patient was located in the nursing portion of the workflow within the EHR, but not in the physician's workflow.

“As result of this discovery, Texas Health Dallas has relocated the travel history documentation to a portion of the EHR that is part of both workflows," the hospital said.

Link to story

Source: http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/national-international/Texas-Hospital-Software-Blame-Ebola-Patients-Misdiagnosis-277988141.html#ixzz3F5cyR89B

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Scrutiny in Texas to Detect Whether Ebola Spread

Thu, 2014-10-02 09:32 — mike kraft

UPDATE

Officials: ‘About 100′ people may have had contact with the Texas Ebola patient

WASHINGTON  POST   OCTOBER 2, 2014  10:03 AM

Texas health officials said Thursday that there are "about 100" people who may have had contact with Thomas Eric Duncan, the man who is being treated in a Dallas-area hospital for Ebola.

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Information Relay Failure Admitted In Texas Ebola Victim Case

Wed, 2014-10-01 16:25 — mike kraft

A patient was diagnosed with Ebola on Sept. 30 at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas.(Photo: Mike Stone, Getty Images)

THE WASHINGTON POST

By Mark Berman October 1 at 3:15 PM

The man in Texas who tested positive for Ebola told hospital officials he had traveled from West Africa when he sought treatment on Friday, but that information was not relayed to everyone treating him at that time, authorities said Wednesday.

As a result, the man was diagnosed with a “low-grade, common viral disease” and sent home that day, said Mark C. Lester, executive vice president of the health-care system that includes Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, the Dallas facility treating the Ebola patient.

“Regretfully, that information was not fully communicated throughout the full team,” Lester said during a news conference Wednesday. “As a result, the full import of that information wasn’t factored into the clinical decision-making.”

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CNN Source: Travel History of U.S. Ebola Patient Not Checked

Wed, 2014-10-01 13:38 — mike kraft


Atlanta (CNN) -- Some school-age children have been in contact with the U.S. Ebola patient being treated in Dallas, Texas Gov. Rick Perry said Wednesday. The children have been identified and are being monitored for symptoms, he said. Perry spoke at a news conference a day after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that, for the first time, a person with the killer disease has been diagnosed on American soil.

The patient, a man, walked into a Dallas emergency room September 26. Although his symptoms could have indicated Ebola, among other diseases, no one at the hospital asked him if he had recently traveled to countries where the virus is present, a source close to the case told CNN.

The man, who had just flown from Liberia to the United States, didn't offer the information either, the source said, and he then left the hospital. A spokesman for Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital says it's investigating whether the patient was questioned about his travels.

Link to Full Story

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FIRST EBOLA CASE IN U.S. CONFIRMED BY CDC

Tue, 2014-09-30 17:50 — mike kraft

Updated with link to CDC statement (below)

The WASHINGTON post September 30 at 5:29 PM

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed the first case of Ebola that's been diagnosed in the United States.

The Texas Department of Health Services said in a statement that the patient is at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas. The patient -- "an adult with a recent history of travel to West Africa" -- was admitted into an isolation unit at the hospital Sunday after developing Ebola-like symptoms "days after returning to Texas from West Africa."

The test, the Texas health department said, was conducted at the state public health laboratory in Austin and later confirmed by the CDC.

The state health lab got the ability to test for Ebola only last month, according to Carrie Williams, a spokeswoman with the Texas Department of State Health Services.

Link to full story

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Water's Edge - The Crisis of Rising Sea Levels

Thu, 2014-09-04 21:43 — Kathy Gilbeaux

       

reuters.com - By Ryan McNeill, Deborah J. Nelson and Duff Wilson - September 4, 2014

As the seas rise, a slow-motion disaster gnaws at America’s shores

Part 1: A Reuters analysis finds that flooding is increasing along much of the nation’s coastline, forcing many communities into costly, controversial struggles with a relentless foe.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

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