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Preparing for Ebola Just in Case

WVIK Staff

Even though the chances are probably remote, staff members at Genesis Health System are preparing to treat patients with Ebola.

Chief Medical Officer, Doctor Nidal Harb, says training is underway at all six Genesis campuses, including the two hospitals in Davenport, and all of its clinics.

Credit WVIK Staff
An isolation room at Genesis Medical Center in Davenport.

And he's confident the doctors, nurses, and other staff will be able to treat safely any possible patient with the deadly virus that's killed thousands of people already in Africa.

Lisa Caffery, the infection control coordinator for Genesis, says isolation rooms are ready, as well as all the personal protection equipment, such as gowns, masks, gloves, and shoe covers.

EBOLA4.mp3
We use same protection with flu and other patients.

The infectious disease response cart.

  

She says if the hospital suspects a patient has Ebola, then they'll be placed in a special private room, and only the medical staff that's absolutely necessary will have any contact with them. Warning signs in one of the rooms are printed in English, Spanish, and French - that's the language spoken by some in west Africa. 

A native of Detroit, Herb Trix began his radio career as a country-western disc jockey in Roswell, New Mexico (“KRSY, your superkicker in the Pecos Valley”), in 1978. After a stint at an oldies station in Topeka, Kansas (imagine getting paid to play “Louie Louie” and “Great Balls of Fire”), he wormed his way into news, first in Topeka, and then in Freeport Illinois.