I’m pretty sure that even our two brand new hospitals here do not have pneumatic tube systems, but I am going to find out for sure. They still use runners to the best of my knowledge.
I would think that if done properly the pneumatic tube system could be used safely in an ebola situation...but in this situation I probably would have used a “special runner” briefed to “be careful with it”!! (Maybe plastic vials instead of glass?). I wonder what the blood lab procedures are in ebola testing? Did the CDC brief them on that?