Lockdown, or at least quarantine of the immediate area has pretty much become SOP in emergency departments across the country given the presence of an unkown exposure. State and Federal alphabet agencies preach this constantly in today's threat enviroment. Lucky though, this hospital appears to be a teaching facility with the ability to quickly assay the offending agent. Most hospitals in the country do not have the technical or human resources
to do this and would still be under lock down pending results from a comphrehensive lab.
That's interesting, it still seems wasteful of a whole department when isolation of the affected individual(s) would accomplish the same thing if there was minimal contact. I know that hospitals are capable of isolating people because I've seen it done. Thanks for the info!