Ebola can teach lessons for handling other infectious diseases

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa has ravaged three impoverished nations and continues to represent a significant threat to the lives of individuals in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and elsewhere. Its longevity and ultimate toll depends on an international effort in managing the crisis at its core—as well as an effective, coordinated national response here at home.

Ironically, this tragic outbreak can ultimately lead to a constructive and positive result, providing an opportunity for the U.S. healthcare system to make significant progress in dealing with infectious diseases in general and reducing an entirely unacceptable rate of hospital-acquired infections.

So far, one individual has died from Ebola in the U.S., where thousands die each year from hospital-acquired infections and tens of thousands of others die annually from influenza and other infections.

But now, more healthcare workers are becoming concerned that they might become the victim of a deadly infectious disease in their hospitals.

We are particularly sensitive and vigilant at Catholic Health Initiatives, which operates 96 hospitals and hundreds of other care sites in 18 states. In Minnesota, where CHI operates five critical-access hospitals, the Minneapolis area is home to the largest Liberian population outside of that nation.

In our focus on safety, the U.S. healthcare system has often cited the analogy of the airline pilot who carefully reviews a comprehensive safety checklist before flying the plane because he or she will certainly share the experience of passengers in the case of any mishap. In the past, it's been used to describe how the healthcare system—more specifically, patients—could benefit if every surgeon and clinical staff member did the same before every procedure.

The analogy has definitely expanded—it now applies in a very direct, personal way to the dedicated men and women who work in our hospitals and who may have to treat a patient infected with Ebola.

Those fears have been heightened considerably since September, when two nurses at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas became infected after treating Thomas Eric Duncan, thus far the first and only U.S. fatality of the disease. Last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention addressed those concerns to some degree with strengthened, step-by-step instructions for the use of personal protective equipment.

Hospitals and other healthcare facilities have long had protocols for dealing with nosocomial infections. And the U.S. healthcare system has made huge strides in dealing with hospital-acquired infections, reducing central-line associated blood-stream infections by about 44% in a four-year period ending in 2012, according to the CDC.

At CHI, we've seen rates of these infections drop 50% to 80% over the past six years. Many other hospitals and health systems are reporting similar reductions. Unfortunately, the grim reality is that hundreds of thousands of patients still contract preventable, hospital-acquired infections each year—catheter-associated urinary-tract infections, central line-associated blood-stream infections and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, among others.

With its insidious impact, Ebola should prompt a wholesale review of infectious-disease protocols and infection-control procedures in every hospital in this country. We must respond with a concerted, collective and comprehensive national initiative to reduce the infections that we are unintentionally passing along to our patients.

Clearly, Ebola is a horrible disease that has caused a wave of concern ranging from anxiety to hysteria. It will continue to pose a threat worldwide—possibly for many years. As clinicians, we have the opportunity for an across-the-board reappraisal of how we do our jobs, underscoring once again a commitment to our patients to follow the simple, standard protocols we have in place to prevent these hospital-acquired conditions.

I've spoken to many colleagues over the past couple of weeks about Ebola and its impact on this country. Most of them are focused on the here-and-now—that is, how do we solve this problem and ensure that no one else contracts this dreadful disease?

Our directive now, as clinicians, is to redouble our efforts in battling hospital-acquired infections with the goal of eliminating them completely. There's no “silver lining” in a deadly disease, but the most recent outbreak of Ebola will help save many, many lives in the long term—if we use it as an opportunity to improve the care we deliver to our patients.