"Here's How You Get Ebola"

[Ike Bana]

Originally Posted by icenine

I think the most likely outbreak would be among the poor or those uninsured who do not present to a hospital until the last minute. You have to remember that the nurses in Texas are getting the cadillac treatment. Not so sure if that would be the case if there was an outbreak among the disenfranchised in say a state like Texas, which because of the idiot governor's refusal to expand medicare has the lowest health insurance coverage in the nation. That is what scares me.

Remember Duncan was an uninsured man when he showed up at the hospital. If he had had some decent insurance they might have admitted him the first time he presented.

There ya go!!! There's some perspective I can applaud. If I got Ebola I'm wanting care in Germany or France or even Italy for christ's sake. Not where the health care is based on profits for the insurance companies and profits for the hospitals and profits for the medical groups. Not in Tejas, or suburban Chicago, eh?

[nailer]

The best shit is eaten. Ask any dog.

EDIT: Oops, wrong thread.

[donquixote99]

Originally Posted by nailer

The best shit is eaten. Ask any dog.

I have to figure you're the only one who knows what the heck you're talking about this time....

ON EDIT: Wrong thread? How fallible of you!

[sheltiedave]

From conversations with a few nurse high honcho types, it sounds like the Texas nurses got to watch a half hour video and got a five minute praticum on donning and doffing the gloves, mask, shoe covers, safety glasses, and Tyvek, and then got thrown into the fire. And they were GLAD they got to help their patient try to make it out alive.

And then they got blamed by the hospital for "not following protocol." The management nitwits can't even begin to imagine what it is like to attempt to do something you have never before done in your life. The nurses and care providers in Africa actually know exactly what they needed to do, while the nurses in Texas were doing it on the fly.

It is never a good thing to be playing catchup in a situation where one slip up results in contracting a bug with a now 70% mortality rate.

[finnbow]

Originally Posted by sheltiedave

From conversations with a few nurse high honcho types, it sounds like the Texas nurses got to watch a half hour video and got a five minute praticum on donning and doffing the gloves, mask, shoe covers, safety glasses, and Tyvek, and then got thrown into the fire.

Their training sure is a lot different than what I got in 40-hour HAZWOPER and Rad Worker training. Donning, doffing, taping, decon, etc. are all covered thoroughly, to include practice sessions, observation and testing.

If an employer at a hazardous waste or nuclear site was as cavalier about employee safety and health training, OSHA or the NRC would be all over their shit after a contamination event and subsequent illness. I suppose OSHA has jurisdiction over the hospital in question, but I'm not sure of their compliance policy with respect to hospitals and health care providers.

[icenine]

Originally Posted by finnbow

Their training sure is a lot different than what I got in 40-hour HAZWOPER and Rad Worker training. Donning, doffing, taping, decon, etc. are all covered thoroughly, to include practice sessions, observation and testing.

If an employer at a hazardous waste or nuclear site was as cavalier about employee safety and health training, OSHA or the NRC would be all over their shit after a contamination event and subsequent illness. I suppose OSHA has jurisdiction over the hospital in question, but I'm not sure of their compliance policy with respect to hospitals and health care providers.

For profit hospitals, typically non-union private concerns, low ball on wages and staff to maximize financial outcomes. Where I work they for example do not want to hire transporters (orderlies in the old days ) and make nurses and allied health staff move patients around. I can see shoddy training all over America.

Your radiation training was mostly likely government funded I am assuming.

[finnbow]

Originally Posted by icenine

For profit hospitals, typically non-union private concerns, low ball on wages and staff to maximize financial outcomes. Where I work they for example do not want to hire transporters (orderlies in the old days ) and make nurses and allied health staff move patients around. I can see shoddy training all over America.

Your radiation training was mostly likely government funded I am assuming.

Both HAZCOM and Radiation Worker training were both government-funded, but privately delivered.

[icenine]

Originally Posted by finnbow

Both HAZCOM and Radiation Worker training were both government-funded, but privately delivered.

Hence the government was making a sincere effort to make sure you were trained in the best way by hiring the best people. I do not know if our nation's hospital administrations will be as diligent in their efforts on Ebola. I hope I am wrong.

[sheltiedave]

Even 40 hr HAZWOPR training is at the C or B level, at best. The A level training is on the job, where you can(and sometimes need) to be an absolute bastard, getting people up to speed on your specific site needs. Plus it is a snap to find particulate hard radiation on a person. Radioactive contamination is a little to a lot harder to detect, although automated whole body scanners make it easier.

Biologics, on the other hand, cannot be detected by people or instruments, so you are 100% reliant on the decon, doffing, and second deconning/shower process. It sounds like Texas Pres. did a spot spray decon, doffing, and hand wash, although there is almost zero release of info for public consumption, with the forthcoming lawsuits.

The CDC and NIH differ on PPE protocols re Ebola. Until this month, I doubt there are any hospitals outside a Level A triage hospital(only a couple per state in large states) that have ever run an Ebola, Maarburg, or a Lassa fever outbreak scenario. Now we have the beginning of one, and we twice have failed at containment.

[finnbow]

Originally Posted by sheltiedave

The CDC and NIH differ on PPE protocols re Ebola. Until this month, I doubt there are any hospitals outside a Level A triage hospital(only a couple per state in large states) that have ever run an Ebola, Maarburg, or a Lassa fever outbreak scenario. Now we have the beginning of one, and we twice have failed at containment.

At least on a HAZWOPER or a rad site, management and labor knows, more or less, what they're dealing with (i.e., a crapped up site). Up until a couple of months ago (or even today), it may be too much to expect that all hospitals are fully prepared to have a full-blown Ebola patient show up in the emergency room.