In 2014, the United States witnessed its first known local transmissions of the Ebola virus disease. Two health care workers in Texas contracted the disease from a patient, prompting nationwide evaluation and enhancement of protocols for handling serious communicable diseases. This incident, coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic’s heightened awareness around personal protective equipment (PPE) and safety protocols, has catalyzed major changes in handling infectious diseases across the country. But the safety protocols to address lethal viral hemorrhagic fevers like Ebola, Marburg virus, Hantavirus, and Dengue require stricter measures due to their high lethality rates.
UK HealthCare carried out an in-person simulation last Wednesday, involving multiple external and internal entities, to enhance their response protocols in treating patients with viral hemorrhagic fever. Medical Director for UK HealthCare Infection Prevention and Control, Dr. Nicholas Van Sickels pointed out how crucial simulating scenarios is, to diminish errors, especially when it comes to life-threatening infections like Ebola, where mortality rates can reach up to 90%.
The simulation followed a specific patient journey – a returnee from an Ebola-hit country – from the patient’s ambulance arrival to the hospital’s isolation ward. The drill participants, representing various departments, practiced the construction of protective antechambers, correct handling and disposal of PPE and bio-waste, patient treatment, and communication methods whilst donning heavy PPE.
As the only hospital in Kentucky to receive the $500,000 Special Pathogen Treatment, Assessment, and Network Development (STAND) award from the National Emerging Special Pathogens Training and Education Center (NETEC), UK HealthCare aims at becoming a Level 2 Special Pathogen Treatment Center (SPTC), thanks to the grant-funded improvements to its processes and equipment.
The award funds will help UK HealthCare become a preferred care provider for patients with serious communicable diseases in Kentucky and neighboring states. During the drill, representatives from Emory University and the University of North Carolina, both NSPS Level 1 Regional Emerging Special Pathogen Treatment Centers, were present to evaluate the exercise and propose potential improvements.
Besides the robust, necessary protocols for treating viral hemorrhagic fever, epidemiologists also emphasize the usefulness of such drills to address more frequently encountered infectious diseases like measles. Senior Medical Director for UK HealthCare Infection Prevention and Control, Dr. Takaaki Kobyashi, stresses the importance of extending the core principles of these drills to other pathogens. As an example, he elaborates how measles – one of the most contagious diseases, requires stringent airborne precautions that these enhanced protocols will address.
As part of the NETEC grant, the UK HealthCare team will continue the momentum of practice, growth, and preparedness, with at least two annual simulations. With the primary objective of healthcare safety and optimism, Dr. Van Sickels reminds that practice truly makes perfect.