‘Multiple failures’ in handling of first U.S. Ebola patient

Health officials’ handling of the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the U.S. appeared to involve “literally multiple failures,” according to Harvard School of Public Health’s Ashish Jha. Jha, professor of health policy and management, was quoted in an October 3, 2014 New York Times article that detailed how Thomas Eric Duncan was initially sent home from the emergency room at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, on September 25, only to return via ambulance two days later.

Jha told the Times that the nurse who initially treated Duncan and flagged in the hospital’s electronic records system that he was from Liberia should have communicated the information directly to the doctor, and that the doctor treating Duncan should have known to ask the question separately.

“In a well-functioning emergency department, doctors and nurses talk to each other,” Jha said. Discussing the hospital’s mistakes in an October 4, 2014 Bloomberg article, he added, “There are so many flaws in the logic of ‘The EMR system made us do it.’ When a patient walks in the ER with a fever, the standard question is, ‘Have you traveled?’ ”

Jha also spoke at length on MSNBC on October 4, 2014 about the Ebola epidemic—on topics such as the importance of early diagnosis; possibilities for treatment; and the likelihood of catching Ebola on an airplane.

Read the New York Times article: Dallas Hospital Alters Account, Raising Questions on Ebola Case

Read the Bloomberg article: Electronic-Record Gap Allowed Ebola Patient to Leave Hospital

Listen to the MSNBC report: Obama admin. considers deploying CDC to airports

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Ebola in the news (HSPH news)