The governor also named the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston as a designated bio-containment facility. The move comes after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggested that certain hospitals in each state should be designated to receive Ebola patients. Last week, New York City designated Bellevue Hospital Center as its primary receiving facility for Ebola patients, and some states have followed.
Each of the Texas hospitals brings something specific to the partnership. UT Southwestern will contribute physician expertise and nursing professionals as needed. Methodist is providing an entire floor of its hospital for the facility and Parkland has begun transferring equipment, including personal protection equipment, IV fluids and laboratory supplies. Parkland will also provide nurses, pharmacists, respiratory therapists and lab technicians.
The facility will include an ICU wing, which Methodist is modifying to allow for laboratory equipment, isolation and decontamination areas, and space for IT and biomedical support. Staffing for the unit is provided on an as-needed basis if it is activated.
Perry said Texas Health Resources, the system at the center of the U.S. Ebola crisis, was not included to give its staff some relief. All three U.S. patients were initially treated at the system’s Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas.
“That hospital has been on the front line. They have paid a heavy price,” Perry said, according to the Dallas Morning News.
Texas Health Presbyterian said in a statement Tuesday that it would continue to offer support to the state’s medical community.
“As the first U.S. hospital to face the challenge of both diagnosing and treating Ebola patients, Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas will continue to share our learnings with health officials at all levels of government, our fellow hospitals and the broader healthcare community,” the hospital said. “A coordinated response is in all our best interests, and we remain active participants in discussions to advance the shared goal of defeating this insidious disease.”
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