Posted on 10/15/2014 2:57:33 AM PDT by Whenifhow
Dr. Betsy McCaughey appeared on Fox just after she had attend a CDC conference call with hospitals this afternoon.
Host Stuart Varney asked her what it would take to set up 50 hospitals to be ready for Ebola.
McCaughey’s answer is stunning.
According to her, after the CDC outlined its preparation strategy, one hospital administrator responded, “What you’re telling us would bankrupt my hospital!” She said that that administrator represents a Southern California hospital.
McCaughey noted that there was no word on the call of who would pay for hospitals to get themselves ready for Ebola patients.
And then she added: “Treating one Ebola patient requires, full time, 20 medical staff. Mostly ICU (intensive care unit) people. So that would wipe out an ICU in an average-sized hospital.”
In the case of Texas Presbyterian, McCaughey says that the hospital cordoned off its ICU to care for Thomas Eric Duncan and sent the rest of its ICU patients to other area hospitals. She added that many communities will not have multiple hospitals to choose from, so one Ebola case could cripple ICUs in small towns.
“But the most important thing,” McCaughey said, “is that doctors and nurses are not ready for the challenge of using this personal protective equipment even if you see them with the helmet, the respirator, the full suits, as the CDC said on the call today, even all that equipment is not enough to guarantee the safety of health care workers because it is so perilous to put it on and particularly to remove it once it’s become contaminated.”
McCaughey said many of those on the call were “daunted by the expectations, the separate laboratory next to the isolated patients, all kinds of — all kinds of adjustments, where to put the waste. Many states won’t even let you dispose of this waste from such a toxic disease.”
Watch McCaughey’s segment.
That is a reasoned, possible approach to initial contact with an ebola patient and first steps. However, depending on the mood of the mob and an Obama government, the response might be quite different, particularly if the patient is not of a protected class. Upon confirmation of Ebola, the patient is shot along with everyone else in the residence and the house is then burned down. It sounds impossible, but someone like Obama, who “is good at killing” might well find it attractive.
Come get me copper....;-)
‘Tis the plan Betsey.
Well, the hospitals will just have to raise the price of Tylenol tablets to $1000 each.
I hope folks are buying a months’worth of food, at least....
Based on what has happened in Houston they may not be able to go to the hospital.
In an underreported story the Houston Hospital that treated Duncan has had to abandon their lunch room due to contamination fear. And that folks, is “the rest of the story”.
As long as Ebola is a threat Emergency Rooms (ERs) must screen potential Ebola patents OUTSIDE. Due to the multiple possible sources of contamination AND high mortality rate, they will (must?) totally disinfect their ERs before seeing the next patent. That means every surface, floor to ceiling and everything in the room. Otherwise the hospital runs the risk of passing on the infection to others.
It comes down to - do we embarrass a small group of infected individuals and still serve the larger community? Or, do we run the risk of having to totally shut down all medical services to the rest of the community? The cost issue is, IMHO, a minor secondary issue.
Thanks for a worst case scenario.
Be prepared. (best outcome scenario)
Post to me or FReep mail to be on/off the Bring Out Your Dead ping list.
The purpose of the “Bring Out Your Dead” ping list (formerly the “Ebola” ping list) is very early warning of emerging pandemics, as such it has a high false positive rate.
So far the false positive rate is 100%.
At some point we may well have a high mortality pandemic, and likely as not the “Bring Out Your Dead” threads will miss the beginning entirely.
*sigh* Such is life, and death...
You had me at 2 x 3 = 9!!! :O
Dallas Presbyterian is done. It will be torn down.
As more cases come in, you will have doctors and nurses fleeing. People will opt out of going there, and HMO’s will write them out of the system.
Yes and no. ER can be a huge money loser for a hospital, depends on the payer mix
You had me at 2 x 3 = 9!!! :O
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Owww... I am so embarrassed! obviously 6.
If the government was footing the bill for the care of Ebola patients, cost would be a consideration.
I think they should have a small number of hospitals geared or a number of trained ebola teams that travel to various hospitals as needed, and the government should foot the bill because it is government immigration policy that allows it to enter the country. The Feds should not be permitted to bankrupt hospitals with their carelessness.
Too bad American men and women who could build quick field hospitals are in African hellholes being infected...
Most small rural hospitals are barely getting by as it is right now. Ebola would finish them off financially. Many(if not most) of them have been taken over by larger healthcare organizations. Don’t know if that would help them hang on in the event of a massive Ebola outbreak.
Right away, I can imagine a FAR better use of that TARP and Porkulus money. Rather than being squandered as it was, it could have been used to prepare hospitals to handle this if necessary.
Of course, as with all things today; Congress could mandate $2 Trillion to help the hospitals and assist locals in dealing with this, and much of it would end up going to hospital Administrators, unions, paying for local politicians unrelated pet projects, and various pork.
The entire area around our local national guard HQ is being hardened as we speak with a perimeter fence dug into the ground.
I'm not saying that 20 members of the staff may not service a single patient, but they can all serve multiple patients. I think the 20:1 ratio implied by the article is outlandish (and I do not say 'outlandish' often!).
Ebola patients will soon no longer be admitted into hospitals - their fate is a FEMA isolation center/death camp.
Thanks for the ping!
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