Florida facility focuses on Ebola prep

A Flagler County, Fla., hospital is dedicating and segregating a part of its facility as part of the region's preparations for a possible Ebola outbreak, according to an article on the Flagler Live website.

“The key to de-escalate situations like this is to educate people: what is your real risk, and how to do protect yourself, and just reassuring everyone that we know what we’re doing and how to do it,” Florida Hospital Flagler’s said Kristin McCabe-Kline, the medical director at the emergency room and for the county’s paramedics. 

A recent demonstration consisted of a "patient" brought into a county ambulance that has been permanently converted into an infectious disease transport — essentially, by lining and taping down its patient compartment with a vehicle’s equivalent of a biohazard suit. 

The hospital has designated a containment unit where the patient would be taken and treated. Staff at the hospital has been trained for the possibility of an outbreak.

The ambulance is one of five that the county owns as a back-up to the seven that are in permanent service. Should it be called on for regular service, it can be quickly converted to a biohazard transport.

Read the article.