In DL: Gearing up for Ebola

The Essentia Health system is gearing up to handle Ebola patients, if the virus should rear its ugly head in the Detroit Lakes area. Plans call for any confirmed cases that show up in the Essentia system to be transferred to Essentia hospitals in Fargo or Duluth, according to Dr. Augusto Alonto, an infectious disease specialist for Essentia in Fargo. Essentia has called on employees to volunteer to become Ebola specialists to work in small, tight-knit units in Fargo and Duluth, and a number of volunteers have come forward. “We are working on creating a small core group of staff responsible for caring for Ebola patients when they arrive,” Alonto said. The group will be given intensive training in Ebola treatment techniques, he added. Though Ebola treatment guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control have been a moving target these past few weeks, Essentia has been doing its best to keep up. “We have been preparing for Ebola over the past several weeks,” Alonto said. “Actually, we have all the personal protection equipment on hand.” At the Detroit Lakes hospital, RN and Emergency Department manager Tom Alinder shows off a full fluid-resistant body suit, complete with hood, face shield and booties. It’s hot and the face shield has a tendency to fog up, but that’s what the buddy system is for, he said, and it will keep the wearer protected from viruses, including Ebola. The gear came as a packaged unit, and more units will be distributed to clinics and hospitals in the Essentia system. The gear will be kept near to hand and easily accessible, “so they don’t have to look for it if they need it,” Alonto said. “If they don’t have it yet, they will soon.” Medical workers everywhere are “obviously concerned because of what happened in Dallas,” he said, where two nurses who worked closely with an Ebola patient caught the disease, in spite of wearing protective gear that at the time met CDC guidelines. That gear left the nurses’ necks exposed. The new gear leaves no exposed skin, Alonto said. The CDC guidelines were stiffened Monday. Properly screening new patients at the ER, the clinic, and at home if they call for medical help is key to the Ebola battle, Alonto said. “That’s the most important thing, screening,” he added. “The front staff at the ER - the receptionist and those who register patients - have been trained to ask certain questions: Have they traveled anywhere? Do they have any symptoms consistent with Ebola? “If yes, the patient is right away isolated from other patients and treated by staff prepared to handle that particular patient,” Alonto said.
Essentia has been holding educational sessions and meetings with its employees to prepare them to safely meet the Ebola threat, Alonto said. “Nurses are trained on protective gear to avoid exposure,” he said. “We have step-by-step instructions for our staff on how to properly put on gear and also replace gear. We have a checklist for each step, and each staff has a buddy to make sure they’re doing it correctly.” Properly taking off infected gear after leaving an Ebola patient’s room involves “a lot of changing of gloves and a lot of hand hygiene between each step, but it can be done safely,” Alonto said. “That’s why we’re educating employees, so they know how to do it.” So far, the education has involved demonstrating the proper way to garb up and safely remove infected gear, but at some point doctors and nurses will also have to practice putting the cumbersome gear on and safely removing it whenever they leave the Ebola patient’s room, Alonto said. In the Detroit Lakes emergency room, RN and infection preventionist Jackie McKenzie points to a bottle of Hershey’s syrup that is squirted on the protective suit and then treated like infectious bodily fluids when the suit is removed. It makes the practice more realistic, she said, and people can see where they fall short and need to improve. Updates and training are a daily occurrence, said Alinder. On Tuesday there was a Becker County public health meeting with first responders, including volunteer firefighters and rescue squads. If they go out on a medical call to a home or business, those first responders could be in harm’s way of the Ebola virus. “We want them to be very, very safe,” Alinder said. So far, there have been no false alarm Ebola scares in the ER, he added, but doctors across the state have reported people calling concerned that they have Ebola. [[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"1242300","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"500","typeof":"foaf:Image","width":"393"}}]] Calling ahead is a good idea, Alinder said. That can eliminate unnecessary ER visits and give medical personnel a little time to prepare before a potential Ebola patient shows up. “As opposed to going to the waiting room, so that place that’s going to receive you is most prepared,” Alinder said. “It’s about safety for them and for health care workers.” In the same way, tell the dispatcher when you call for an ambulance, he said. The deadly Ebola virus, with a mortality rate of 50 percent or higher, strikes fear in medical workers just like everyone else, and Essentia would prefer to let employee volunteers staff the Ebola units. “I have not heard anyone say they won’t care for an Ebola patient,” Alonto said. “Our plan is not to have to ask them to care for an Ebola patient … with physicians, of course, it’s a given that we will take care of all patients.” Infected blood, like other bodily fluids of Ebola patients, is highly contagious, and that’s a concern to those who draw and test blood. “We’re talking to lab employees as to what to do as far as collecting specimens from a patient,” Alonto said. “Our environmental disposal people have been in touch with companies that typically will take the equipment and clean it. We’re not sure how it will happen, but we’re working on it.” That won’t be an issue in patient rooms. “Our environmental services people will know how to clean it,” he said. Despite its fearsome reputation, Ebola is actually more difficult to catch than, say, the flu or the common cold, which are airborne viruses. Ebola is not airborne and is passed from person to person through close contact with bodily fluids – usually blood, bodily waste or vomit. “Those most at-risk are actually hospital staff who have direct contact and care of the patient, and the family members who live with the patient, said Alonto. “The community has a lower risk of contracting Ebola.” It’s good to be concerned and good to be prepared, he added, “but with the CDC and the emergency services systems in the U.S. geared up, I think the likelihood is low.” If a case of Ebola does occur, the CDC will basically assume treatment decisions. “There are actually several experimental therapies available for patients,” Alonto said. “They would be given on a case-by-case basis by the CDC.” There is no known cure for Ebola, and no vaccine yet. Doctors would treat the symptoms by keeping patients hydrated through IV fluids and possibly using antibiotics, Alonto said. Other techniques include blood transfusions. “But there’s not anything that actually treats the Ebola virus infection,” he added. “I just want people to know we regularly do emergency preparedness training during these outbreaks,” he said, adding, “We do additional planning and educating of staff on how to properly screen patients and on protective gear,” with the goal of “protecting the community and protecting our staff.” Tweets by @DLNewspapersThe Essentia Health system is gearing up to handle Ebola patients, if the virus should rear its ugly head in the Detroit Lakes area. Plans call for any confirmed cases that show up in the Essentia system to be transferred to Essentia hospitals in Fargo or Duluth, according to Dr. Augusto Alonto, an infectious disease specialist for Essentia in Fargo. Essentia has called on employees to volunteer to become Ebola specialists to work in small, tight-knit units in Fargo and Duluth, and a number of volunteers have come forward. “We are working on creating a small core group of staff responsible for caring for Ebola patients when they arrive,” Alonto said. The group will be given intensive training in Ebola treatment techniques, he added. Though Ebola treatment guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control have been a moving target these past few weeks, Essentia has been doing its best to keep up. “We have been preparing for Ebola over the past several weeks,” Alonto said. “Actually, we have all the personal protection equipment on hand.” At the Detroit Lakes hospital, RN and Emergency Department manager Tom Alinder shows off a full fluid-resistant body suit, complete with hood, face shield and booties. It’s hot and the face shield has a tendency to fog up, but that’s what the buddy system is for, he said, and it will keep the wearer protected from viruses, including Ebola. The gear came as a packaged unit, and more units will be distributed to clinics and hospitals in the Essentia system. The gear will be kept near to hand and easily accessible, “so they don’t have to look for it if they need it,” Alonto said. “If they don’t have it yet, they will soon.” Medical workers everywhere are “obviously concerned because of what happened in Dallas,” he said, where two nurses who worked closely with an Ebola patient caught the disease, in spite of wearing protective gear that at the time met CDC guidelines. That gear left the nurses’ necks exposed. The new gear leaves no exposed skin, Alonto said. The CDC guidelines were stiffened Monday. Properly screening new patients at the ER, the clinic, and at home if they call for medical help is key to the Ebola battle, Alonto said. “That’s the most important thing, screening,” he added. “The front staff at the ER - the receptionist and those who register patients - have been trained to ask certain questions: Have they traveled anywhere? Do they have any symptoms consistent with Ebola? “If yes, the patient is right away isolated from other patients and treated by staff prepared to handle that particular patient,” Alonto said. [[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"1242298","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"350","typeof":"foaf:Image","width":"750"}}]] Essentia has been holding educational sessions and meetings with its employees to prepare them to safely meet the Ebola threat, Alonto said. “Nurses are trained on protective gear to avoid exposure,” he said. “We have step-by-step instructions for our staff on how to properly put on gear and also replace gear. We have a checklist for each step, and each staff has a buddy to make sure they’re doing it correctly.” Properly taking off infected gear after leaving an Ebola patient’s room involves “a lot of changing of gloves and a lot of hand hygiene between each step, but it can be done safely,” Alonto said. “That’s why we’re educating employees, so they know how to do it.” So far, the education has involved demonstrating the proper way to garb up and safely remove infected gear, but at some point doctors and nurses will also have to practice putting the cumbersome gear on and safely removing it whenever they leave the Ebola patient’s room, Alonto said. In the Detroit Lakes emergency room, RN and infection preventionist Jackie McKenzie points to a bottle of Hershey’s syrup that is squirted on the protective suit and then treated like infectious bodily fluids when the suit is removed. It makes the practice more realistic, she said, and people can see where they fall short and need to improve. Updates and training are a daily occurrence, said Alinder. On Tuesday there was a Becker County public health meeting with first responders, including volunteer firefighters and rescue squads. If they go out on a medical call to a home or business, those first responders could be in harm’s way of the Ebola virus. “We want them to be very, very safe,” Alinder said. So far, there have been no false alarm Ebola scares in the ER, he added, but doctors across the state have reported people calling concerned that they have Ebola.
Calling ahead is a good idea, Alinder said. That can eliminate unnecessary ER visits and give medical personnel a little time to prepare before a potential Ebola patient shows up. “As opposed to going to the waiting room, so that place that’s going to receive you is most prepared,” Alinder said. “It’s about safety for them and for health care workers.” In the same way, tell the dispatcher when you call for an ambulance, he said. The deadly Ebola virus, with a mortality rate of 50 percent or higher, strikes fear in medical workers just like everyone else, and Essentia would prefer to let employee volunteers staff the Ebola units. “I have not heard anyone say they won’t care for an Ebola patient,” Alonto said. “Our plan is not to have to ask them to care for an Ebola patient … with physicians, of course, it’s a given that we will take care of all patients.” Infected blood, like other bodily fluids of Ebola patients, is highly contagious, and that’s a concern to those who draw and test blood. “We’re talking to lab employees as to what to do as far as collecting specimens from a patient,” Alonto said. “Our environmental disposal people have been in touch with companies that typically will take the equipment and clean it. We’re not sure how it will happen, but we’re working on it.” That won’t be an issue in patient rooms. “Our environmental services people will know how to clean it,” he said. Despite its fearsome reputation, Ebola is actually more difficult to catch than, say, the flu or the common cold, which are airborne viruses. Ebola is not airborne and is passed from person to person through close contact with bodily fluids – usually blood, bodily waste or vomit. “Those most at-risk are actually hospital staff who have direct contact and care of the patient, and the family members who live with the patient, said Alonto. “The community has a lower risk of contracting Ebola.” It’s good to be concerned and good to be prepared, he added, “but with the CDC and the emergency services systems in the U.S. geared up, I think the likelihood is low.” If a case of Ebola does occur, the CDC will basically assume treatment decisions. “There are actually several experimental therapies available for patients,” Alonto said. “They would be given on a case-by-case basis by the CDC.” There is no known cure for Ebola, and no vaccine yet. Doctors would treat the symptoms by keeping patients hydrated through IV fluids and possibly using antibiotics, Alonto said. Other techniques include blood transfusions. “But there’s not anything that actually treats the Ebola virus infection,” he added. “I just want people to know we regularly do emergency preparedness training during these outbreaks,” he said, adding, “We do additional planning and educating of staff on how to properly screen patients and on protective gear,” with the goal of “protecting the community and protecting our staff.” Tweets by @DLNewspapersThe Essentia Health system is gearing up to handle Ebola patients, if the virus should rear its ugly head in the Detroit Lakes area.Plans call for any confirmed cases that show up in the Essentia system to be transferred to Essentia hospitals in Fargo or Duluth, according to Dr. Augusto Alonto, an infectious disease specialist for Essentia in Fargo.Essentia has called on employees to volunteer to become Ebola specialists to work in small, tight-knit units in Fargo and Duluth, and a number of volunteers have come forward.“We are working on creating a small core group of staff responsible for caring for Ebola patients when they arrive,” Alonto said. The group will be given intensive training in Ebola treatment techniques, he added.Though Ebola treatment guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control have been a moving target these past few weeks, Essentia has been doing its best to keep up.“We have been preparing for Ebola over the past several weeks,” Alonto said. “Actually, we have all the personal protection equipment on hand.”At the Detroit Lakes hospital, RN and Emergency Department manager Tom Alinder shows off a full fluid-resistant body suit, complete with hood, face shield and booties. It’s hot and the face shield has a tendency to fog up, but that’s what the buddy system is for, he said, and it will keep the wearer protected from viruses, including Ebola.The gear came as a packaged unit, and more units will be distributed to clinics and hospitals in the Essentia system.The gear will be kept near to hand and easily accessible, “so they don’t have to look for it if they need it,” Alonto said. “If they don’t have it yet, they will soon.”Medical workers everywhere are “obviously concerned because of what happened in Dallas,” he said, where two nurses who worked closely with an Ebola patient caught the disease, in spite of wearing protective gear that at the time met CDC guidelines.That gear left the nurses’ necks exposed. The new gear leaves no exposed skin, Alonto said. The CDC guidelines were stiffened Monday.Properly screening new patients at the ER, the clinic, and at home if they call for medical help is key to the Ebola battle, Alonto said.“That’s the most important thing, screening,” he added. “The front staff at the ER - the receptionist and those who register patients - have been trained to ask certain questions: Have they traveled anywhere? Do they have any symptoms consistent with Ebola?“If yes, the patient is right away isolated from other patients and treated by staff prepared to handle that particular patient,” Alonto said.
Essentia has been holding educational sessions and meetings with its employees to prepare them to safely meet the Ebola threat, Alonto said.“Nurses are trained on protective gear to avoid exposure,” he said. “We have step-by-step instructions for our staff on how to properly put on gear and also replace gear. We have a checklist for each step, and each staff has a buddy to make sure they’re doing it correctly.”Properly taking off infected gear after leaving an Ebola patient’s room involves “a lot of changing of gloves and a lot of hand hygiene between each step, but it can be done safely,” Alonto said. “That’s why we’re educating employees, so they know how to do it.”So far, the education has involved demonstrating the proper way to garb up and safely remove infected gear, but at some point doctors and nurses will also have to practice putting the cumbersome gear on and safely removing it whenever they leave the Ebola patient’s room, Alonto said.In the Detroit Lakes emergency room, RN and infection preventionist Jackie McKenzie points to a bottle of Hershey’s syrup that is squirted on the protective suit and then treated like infectious bodily fluids when the suit is removed. It makes the practice more realistic, she said, and people can see where they fall short and need to improve.Updates and training are a daily occurrence, said Alinder. On Tuesday there was a Becker County public health meeting with first responders, including volunteer firefighters and rescue squads.If they go out on a medical call to a home or business, those first responders could be in harm’s way of the Ebola virus.“We want them to be very, very safe,” Alinder said.So far, there have been no false alarm Ebola scares in the ER, he added, but doctors across the state have reported people calling concerned that they have Ebola.[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"1242300","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"500","typeof":"foaf:Image","width":"393"}}]]Calling ahead is a good idea, Alinder said. That can eliminate unnecessary ER visits and give medical personnel a little time to prepare before a potential Ebola patient shows up.“As opposed to going to the waiting room, so that place that’s going to receive you is most prepared,” Alinder said. “It’s about safety for them and for health care workers.”In the same way, tell the dispatcher when you call for an ambulance, he said.The deadly Ebola virus, with a mortality rate of 50 percent or higher, strikes fear in medical workers just like everyone else, and Essentia would prefer to let employee volunteers staff the Ebola units.“I have not heard anyone say they won’t care for an Ebola patient,” Alonto said. “Our plan is not to have to ask them to care for an Ebola patient … with physicians, of course, it’s a given that we will take care of all patients.”Infected blood, like other bodily fluids of Ebola patients, is highly contagious, and that’s a concern to those who draw and test blood.“We’re talking to lab employees as to what to do as far as collecting specimens from a patient,” Alonto said. “Our environmental disposal people have been in touch with companies that typically will take the equipment and clean it. We’re not sure how it will happen, but we’re working on it.”That won’t be an issue in patient rooms. “Our environmental services people will know how to clean it,” he said.Despite its fearsome reputation, Ebola is actually more difficult to catch than, say, the flu or the common cold, which are airborne viruses.Ebola is not airborne and is passed from person to person through close contact with bodily fluids – usually blood, bodily waste or vomit.“Those most at-risk are actually hospital staff who have direct contact and care of the patient, and the family members who live with the patient, said Alonto. “The community has a lower risk of contracting Ebola.”It’s good to be concerned and good to be prepared, he added, “but with the CDC and the emergency services systems in the U.S. geared up, I think the likelihood is low.”If a case of Ebola does occur, the CDC will basically assume treatment decisions. “There are actually several experimental therapies available for patients,” Alonto said. “They would be given on a case-by-case basis by the CDC.”There is no known cure for Ebola, and no vaccine yet. Doctors would treat the symptoms by keeping patients hydrated through IV fluids and possibly using antibiotics, Alonto said. Other techniques include blood transfusions. “But there’s not anything that actually treats the Ebola virus infection,” he added.“I just want people to know we regularly do emergency preparedness training during these outbreaks,” he said, adding, “We do additional planning and educating of staff on how to properly screen patients and on protective gear,” with the goal of “protecting the community and protecting our staff.”Tweets by @DLNewspapersThe Essentia Health system is gearing up to handle Ebola patients, if the virus should rear its ugly head in the Detroit Lakes area.Plans call for any confirmed cases that show up in the Essentia system to be transferred to Essentia hospitals in Fargo or Duluth, according to Dr. Augusto Alonto, an infectious disease specialist for Essentia in Fargo.Essentia has called on employees to volunteer to become Ebola specialists to work in small, tight-knit units in Fargo and Duluth, and a number of volunteers have come forward.“We are working on creating a small core group of staff responsible for caring for Ebola patients when they arrive,” Alonto said. The group will be given intensive training in Ebola treatment techniques, he added.Though Ebola treatment guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control have been a moving target these past few weeks, Essentia has been doing its best to keep up.“We have been preparing for Ebola over the past several weeks,” Alonto said. “Actually, we have all the personal protection equipment on hand.”At the Detroit Lakes hospital, RN and Emergency Department manager Tom Alinder shows off a full fluid-resistant body suit, complete with hood, face shield and booties. It’s hot and the face shield has a tendency to fog up, but that’s what the buddy system is for, he said, and it will keep the wearer protected from viruses, including Ebola.The gear came as a packaged unit, and more units will be distributed to clinics and hospitals in the Essentia system.The gear will be kept near to hand and easily accessible, “so they don’t have to look for it if they need it,” Alonto said. “If they don’t have it yet, they will soon.”Medical workers everywhere are “obviously concerned because of what happened in Dallas,” he said, where two nurses who worked closely with an Ebola patient caught the disease, in spite of wearing protective gear that at the time met CDC guidelines.That gear left the nurses’ necks exposed. The new gear leaves no exposed skin, Alonto said. The CDC guidelines were stiffened Monday.Properly screening new patients at the ER, the clinic, and at home if they call for medical help is key to the Ebola battle, Alonto said.“That’s the most important thing, screening,” he added. “The front staff at the ER - the receptionist and those who register patients - have been trained to ask certain questions: Have they traveled anywhere? Do they have any symptoms consistent with Ebola?“If yes, the patient is right away isolated from other patients and treated by staff prepared to handle that particular patient,” Alonto said.[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"1242298","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"350","typeof":"foaf:Image","width":"750"}}]]Essentia has been holding educational sessions and meetings with its employees to prepare them to safely meet the Ebola threat, Alonto said.“Nurses are trained on protective gear to avoid exposure,” he said. “We have step-by-step instructions for our staff on how to properly put on gear and also replace gear. We have a checklist for each step, and each staff has a buddy to make sure they’re doing it correctly.”Properly taking off infected gear after leaving an Ebola patient’s room involves “a lot of changing of gloves and a lot of hand hygiene between each step, but it can be done safely,” Alonto said. “That’s why we’re educating employees, so they know how to do it.”So far, the education has involved demonstrating the proper way to garb up and safely remove infected gear, but at some point doctors and nurses will also have to practice putting the cumbersome gear on and safely removing it whenever they leave the Ebola patient’s room, Alonto said.In the Detroit Lakes emergency room, RN and infection preventionist Jackie McKenzie points to a bottle of Hershey’s syrup that is squirted on the protective suit and then treated like infectious bodily fluids when the suit is removed. It makes the practice more realistic, she said, and people can see where they fall short and need to improve.Updates and training are a daily occurrence, said Alinder. On Tuesday there was a Becker County public health meeting with first responders, including volunteer firefighters and rescue squads.If they go out on a medical call to a home or business, those first responders could be in harm’s way of the Ebola virus.“We want them to be very, very safe,” Alinder said.So far, there have been no false alarm Ebola scares in the ER, he added, but doctors across the state have reported people calling concerned that they have Ebola.
Calling ahead is a good idea, Alinder said. That can eliminate unnecessary ER visits and give medical personnel a little time to prepare before a potential Ebola patient shows up.“As opposed to going to the waiting room, so that place that’s going to receive you is most prepared,” Alinder said. “It’s about safety for them and for health care workers.”In the same way, tell the dispatcher when you call for an ambulance, he said.The deadly Ebola virus, with a mortality rate of 50 percent or higher, strikes fear in medical workers just like everyone else, and Essentia would prefer to let employee volunteers staff the Ebola units.“I have not heard anyone say they won’t care for an Ebola patient,” Alonto said. “Our plan is not to have to ask them to care for an Ebola patient … with physicians, of course, it’s a given that we will take care of all patients.”Infected blood, like other bodily fluids of Ebola patients, is highly contagious, and that’s a concern to those who draw and test blood.“We’re talking to lab employees as to what to do as far as collecting specimens from a patient,” Alonto said. “Our environmental disposal people have been in touch with companies that typically will take the equipment and clean it. We’re not sure how it will happen, but we’re working on it.”That won’t be an issue in patient rooms. “Our environmental services people will know how to clean it,” he said.Despite its fearsome reputation, Ebola is actually more difficult to catch than, say, the flu or the common cold, which are airborne viruses.Ebola is not airborne and is passed from person to person through close contact with bodily fluids – usually blood, bodily waste or vomit.“Those most at-risk are actually hospital staff who have direct contact and care of the patient, and the family members who live with the patient, said Alonto. “The community has a lower risk of contracting Ebola.”It’s good to be concerned and good to be prepared, he added, “but with the CDC and the emergency services systems in the U.S. geared up, I think the likelihood is low.”If a case of Ebola does occur, the CDC will basically assume treatment decisions. “There are actually several experimental therapies available for patients,” Alonto said. “They would be given on a case-by-case basis by the CDC.”There is no known cure for Ebola, and no vaccine yet. Doctors would treat the symptoms by keeping patients hydrated through IV fluids and possibly using antibiotics, Alonto said. Other techniques include blood transfusions. “But there’s not anything that actually treats the Ebola virus infection,” he added.“I just want people to know we regularly do emergency preparedness training during these outbreaks,” he said, adding, “We do additional planning and educating of staff on how to properly screen patients and on protective gear,” with the goal of “protecting the community and protecting our staff.”Tweets by @DLNewspapers