Bellevue Hospital ICU patients head to NYU Langone to free up staff for Ebola cases

NY DailyNews ^ | 10/27/14 | staff

[winoneforthegipper]

While Bellevue has just one confirmed case — Dr. Craig Spencer — and it is currently testing a 5-year-old Bronx boy to see if he has the dreaded disease, taking care of them requires a lot of manpower and the hospital wants to be ready if any more Ebola patients turn up. So Bellevue has worked out a deal to move patients from its 50-bed intensive care unit two blocks north to New York University Langone Medical Center, sources said Monday.

[winoneforthegipper]

I would think the odds of the little boy having the virus just lowered in Vegas.

[SeekAndFind]

Tsk Tsk Tsk. Such a huge displacement for one Ebola case.

Now just imagine what would happen if there were several...

[Tennessee Nana]

why ???

it sounds more like he and several more Ebola patients need the beds in the ICU

[Paulie]

Just precautionary, huh?

[null and void]

Bring out your dead! The Dark Man cometh! Bring out your dead! The Dark Man cometh! Bring out your......

(hat tip to: fivecatsandadog!)

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...

[Sooth2222]

Bellevue is a public hospital. It can’t go bankrupt taking care of one Ebola patient.

[DCBryan1]

Wait for it....wait for it.....here it comes:

"out of an abundance of caution".....

[miss marmelstein]

Was just reading up on Bellevue and oh, the irony of ironies! It was founded in the 18th century far from downtown because…it quarantined the sick.

Great hospital and I always thought it was affiliated with NYU.

[wtd]

ITV.com: New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has confirmed doctors are awaiting test results on a five-year-old boy who was admitted to Bellevue Hospital with possible Ebola symptoms. The preliminary test results are expected in the next 12 hours, de Blasio said.

Earlier today, reports stated test results expected early this afternoon...sure sounds like they are buying time to score a plausible narrative.

"He had returned from a family trip to Guinea on Saturday night on a Moroccan Airlines flight which landed at JFK. He was screened but did not have a fever when he entered the U.S., CDC director, Dr Tom Frieden said on Monday. Five members of the child's family have been quarantined inside their apartment, law enforcement officials said, but told EMTs that they did not have contact with anyone infected with Ebola while in Guinea. Those under quarantine at the Bronx apartment are believed to be the boy's father, 52, a 15-year-old sister and two brothers, aged 13 and two years old, the Daily News reported. [snip]The boy's preliminary test results were expected later today, hospital officials said ."UKDailyMail

[scouter]

While Bellevue has just one confirmed case — Dr. Craig Spencer — and it is currently testing a 5-year-old Bronx boy to see if he has the dreaded disease, taking care of them requires a lot of manpower and the hospital wants to be ready if any more Ebola patients turn up. So Bellevue has worked out a deal to move patients from its 50-bed intensive care unit two blocks north to New York University Langone Medical Center, sources said Monday.

Think about this for a moment... Do you have any idea what's involved in transferring a single ICU patient to the Operating Room right down the hall?! To move them several blocks to an entirely different hospital is a staggering challenge. To do so for several dozen critically ill patients boggles the imagination. Everything from patient identification, medical records, insurance, etc., to the liability of making a transfer that is unnecessary for that specific patient's welfare, to the logistics of having enough ambulances, doctors, nurses, and paramedics. The legal issues of having doctors and nurses from one hospital involved in caring for the patient, even for a minute, inside another hospital.

There has to be a huge reason for this step to be taken, beyond the mere preparation for the possibility that they'll need the ICU beds at Bellevue. There's something they're not telling us.

[winoneforthegipper]

Could stuff...exactly!

[winoneforthegipper]

I thought the same...course I remember the sitcoms from the 60’s and 70’s that referred to their uh....psycho expertise...lol

[Truth29]

"There has to be a huge reason for this step to be taken, beyond the mere preparation for the possibility that they'll need the ICU beds at Bellevue. There's something they're not telling us."

Agree; as presented in this article, the hospital's action doesn't pass the smell test. They are actually risking the health care of some patients with a move like this. I even wonder if this would effect someone's insurance coverage, in or out of network for instance.

[Wuli]

Three blocks north on First Avenue.

[miss marmelstein]

Best emergency room as well. And that psych ward! Home of Billy Boggs. A good friend of mine was her shrink and HATED HER.

[scouter]

And that psych ward! Home of Billy Boggs. A good friend of mine was her shrink and HATED HER.

Sounds like that friend of yours was ethically challenged, to have discussed a patient of hers with you. Unless, of course, you were also involved in her care.

[Covenantor]

All as you say and in crowded mid-town Manhattan.

[miss marmelstein]

Oh, I must track her down and report her! Thanks for the alert. Not.

[jersey117]

The boy must be positive. Was in school.

[wtd]

• WSJ: Bellevue Hospital Center has begun transferring patients from its intensive care unit to nearby NYU Langone Medical Center, a signal that caring for Ebola patientS could require changes in how New York City’s flagship public hospital operates.

  Two adult patients were first moved over the weekend and another two pediatric patients will be moved Monday, according to a joint statement from NYU Langone and Bellevue. Oct. 27, 2014 4:44 p.m. ET

  ******

• NYDailyNews: Boy who traveled to West Africa being tested for Ebola at Bellevue Hospital, results expected Monday

  The child, 5, had a high fever when an Emergency Medical Service ambulance crew rushed him from his Bronx home to Bellevue Hospital about 9 p.m. Sunday. A source said the boy had recently been in Guinea, West Africa, but had not displayed any symptoms after going through a check at Kennedy Airport on Saturday. At Public School 195-196, where the boy attends kindergarten, city Department of Health workers were passing out 'Understanding Ebola' leaflets to assuage fears of students and their parents.

  Mayor de Blasio urged calm and said the boy was at Bellevue Hospital with his mother, who sources said is 40.

  “The child at first did not appear to have any symptoms,” the mayor said. “The fact that the mother shows no symptoms at all is a very encouraging sign.”

  The boy had been visiting relatives in Guinea for a month with his family and returned home on Moroccan Airlines early Saturday, landing at Kennedy Airport, sources said.

  When he was rushed to Bellevue on Sunday evening, he had a temperature of 102.7 degrees and bloodshot eyes, the sources said. The boy is in an isolation ward at Bellevue Hospital — the epicenter of the city’s response to the Ebola crisis.

  Officials have also quarantined the boy’s 52-year-old father, a sister, who is 15, and two brothers, ages 13 and 2, sources said.

  “As a further precaution,” a team of so-called “disease detectives” are now tracing all of the young boy’s contacts “to identify anyone who may be at potential risk,” an official said.

  *****

  I wonder if the parents did not cancel their trip to West Africa because they would forfeit some of their long planned investment on the deal.

  If so, this needs to be addressed now!

  Just because the US govt. doesn't prevent unnecessary travel to the hot zone, SHOULD NOT INADVERTENTLY imply the "all clear" for travel anywhere near the Ebola hot zone to the low information traveler/voter. This IS a matter of life or death!