Health: Pa. Nurses Union Concerned Regional Hospitals Aren't Ready For Ebola
By Stephanie Stahl
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Here at Hahnemann University Hospital protective gear is ready, hospitals everywhere insisting they're ready to fight Ebola. But with a nurse now infected in Texas, people are wondering, even those on the front lines.
"I'm concerned that this region is not really prepared for it," said Patty Eakin, Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals.
Patty Eakin is the President of the Pennsylvania Nurses Union.
"We have all these different hospitals scrambling themselves to try to figure out should they use this goggle or that goggle, should they use hazmat suits or just impermeable gowns," Eakin said.
The nurses union wants a single Ebola treatment center designated in the region and better training for medical personnel.
And while there may have been a breach of protocol in Texas, the head of Infectious Disease at the National Institutes of Health says preparations have not been good enough.
"Quite frankly, the training was, the proof of the pudding, the training was not adequate. It was not adequate," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, National Institutes of Health.
"This is a moving target," said Mark Ross.
Mark Ross, with the Delaware Valley Healthcare Council, which represents local hospitals, says they are keeping up with evolving recommendations from the CDC, Ebola precautions are in place.
(Reporter:) "When nurses say they're worried, they're not confident that we're ready here, you could see how people would be concerned?"
"I understand that. But they also have these annual trainings, they know how to handle infectious diseases," Ross said. "Every facility in this region, in this state, has the ability to identify, isolate and care for a patient with an infectious disease such as Ebola."
