The Atlanta Journal-Constitution remains the premiere source for news on Ebola that affects metro Atlanta. Atlanta has emerged as a leader in the care of Ebola patients in the U.S., with four people treated at Emory University Hospital. It is also the home to the Centers for Disease Control and Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, one of five U.S. airports receiving travelers from the “hot zone” in West Africa. For more information see the AJC’s Ebola webpage at http://www.ajc.com/s/news/ebola/#top-news
Georgia health officials are refusing to identify six hospitals that will join Emory University Hospital as the state’s primary Ebola treatment centers, fearing that negative reactions from the public, vendors and others could slow the hospitals’ preparations.
Explaining their secrecy, state officials pointed to the troubles Emory University Hospital faced after it began treating Ebola patients in August. Hospital officials received hate mail, vendors refused to handle blood samples and at least one restaurant refused to deliver pizza.
Ryan Deal, spokesman for the state Department of Public Health, said the six hospitals have asked to remain anonymous until they are fully prepared to treat an Ebola patient. In addition, he said some hospitals may not ultimately earn the state’s approval as a designated Ebola center.
“There’s potential that unintended consequences could become a problem,” Deal said. “We don’t want to slow down the process.”
The chances that any of the six hospitals will ever receive an Ebola case are unknown. As of Tuesday, there were no active cases of Ebola infection being treated anywhere in the nation.
Experts interviewed by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution said they prefer transparency but thought getting the hospitals prepared was more important than immediately identifying them to the public. Other health care advocates were troubled by the secrecy surrounding the process.
“That doesn’t make sense,” said Irma Westmoreland, a nurse at the Augusta VA hospital and vice president of National Nurses United, a union. “I want to know if the nurses are being trained properly, if they are using the best equipment. I want to know the nurses are ready to go, that the hospitals will be protected and that the public will be protected.”
Likewise, state Sen. Vincent Fort, D-Atlanta, said the public should be part of the process from the outset.
“They need to be let in on the process and not after the fact,” Fort said. “They need to be involved. Whatever their concerns might be, they will not be mitigated by secrecy. If anything, they will be aggravated by secrecy.”
When will they be ready? Unknown
Gov. Nathan Deal’s task force on Ebola announced on Oct. 29 that the state will designate seven hospitals to treat the disease. Another 10 hospitals would become diagnostic centers where staff would perform tests to confirm the virus and shuttle patients to the designated treatment centers.
Since that time, the AJC has repeatedly asked the state to identify the hospitals.
Public Health Commissioner Brenda Fitzgerald has declined to name these facilities, except one — Emory University Hospital, which has already treated four infected patients. Fitzgerald said she is respecting the wishes of the hospitals. The preparations could include some physical changes to the hospital, she said, and it remains unclear whether the process will take weeks or months.
She said the hospitals, which volunteered for this work, “prefer not to deal with the media and casual inquiries” until preparations are in place. In addition, she said that if the names of the facilities emerge, “I would not want a person (with Ebola symptoms) showing up before a hospital is ready.”
There has been a strong desire on the part of Georgians for information regarding the state’s readiness to handle cases of Ebola. For months, Georgians have sent a surge of inquiries to the governor’s office seeking details about the state’s plans.
When New York State designated eight hospitals to treat Ebola patients last month, state health officials there identified the facilities by name.
Conflicting messages to the public
Public skepticism heightened regarding the readiness of hospitals after two nurses contracted the disease while treating an infected patient in Dallas.
Early on, Tom Frieden, director of the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that any hospital that can isolate a patient can handle an Ebola case. He has since changed that message, saying that if a hospital spots a case, officials must then consider the safest course of treatment moving forward.
Health experts say they see the conflict between a state agency’s responsibility to be transparent versus the need to quickly prepare the state to handle Ebola. They also pointed to a downside for a hospital that treats Ebola.
“Some people may not want to go to a hospital designated to treat Ebola,” said Dr. Stephen S. Morse, professor of epidemiology at Columbia University.
Having a unit up and ready to go when the name is released also makes it more difficult for any opposition to reverse the process and scrap the project, said Richard Ebright, a Rutgers University professor of chemistry and chemical biology.
“I prefer transparency,” Ebright said. But given the urgency to prepare, he did not see the harm in holding off identifying the hospitals for a time. “The most critical point is the preparedness.”
Each of the seven Georgia hospitals would establish a treatment unit largely separate from the rest of the facility, Fitzgerald said. The units would have their own labs and staffs dedicated and trained for the duty. The CDC will help them prepare, training them on the use of the personal protective suits, lab safety, waste management and infection control.
Network is part of state’s overall plan
The creation of a hospital network to handle Ebola arrives as Georgia prepares to handle cases while ensuring the safety of the public and medical staff. Deal recently announced an Ebola response plan that enables health officials to quarantine “high-risk” travelers from areas ravaged by Ebola, even if they show no symptoms. It also mandates that medical personnel who treated Ebola patients be “visually monitored” for symptoms.
Deal’s 13-person task force, led by Fitzgerald, includes experts from Emory and the University of Georgia.
The decision not to disclose the hospitals did not find any significant criticism from health care groups and good-government watchdogs contacted by the AJC. Several had no comment.
While the identity of these hospitals remains a mystery, one Georgia health system has specifically said it is not among them.
Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, which is building an Ebola pediatric unit at its Egleston hospital, said it is not among those chosen. CHOA officials declined to say why.
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