Below I’ve listed the officially recognized Ebola Treatment Centers in the United States as of February 14th 2015.  If we have a case of Ebola, we know where to take the patient.  If the patient has Anthrax, Botulism, Plague, Small Pox, Tularemia or other highly virulent disease, the patient and care givers are still out of luck.

The reason I mention this is there are grant funds for Ebola preparedness are available through the Hospital Preparedness Program (HPP) Ebola Preparedness and Response Activities program. The cutoff date for application is April 22nd, 2015.

I can’t come up with a good reason why the program is one disease specific and not address all CDC Category A agents, or highly contagious and virulent organisms. Are we planning on waiting until after we get a significant outbreak of pneumonia plague to start getting ready just for plague?  I undoubtedly will benefit from this ignore the forest and focus on the tree approach with the PPE Course I offer, but even in my course I mention the critical need for universal application of proper PPE selection, donning and doffing and sanitizing.

We know that Hospital Acquired Infections (HAI) are a huge problem in the United States and obviously we are moving disease from one patient to another.  We also know Ebola is not a huge problem in the United States and I would argue if we dramatically decrease our efforts to decrease HAI we in turn make our staff and patients safer from all disease.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this focused funding effort.

 

                        Ebola Treatment Centers, as of February 14, 2015

Jurisdiction City Hospital/Facility
AZ Phoenix Maricopa Integrated Health Systems
AZ Tucson University of Arizona Health Network
CA Oakland Oakland Medical Center
CA Sacramento South Sacramento Medical Center
CA Sacramento University of California Davis Medical Center
CA San Francisco University of California San Francisco Medical Center
CA Orange University of California Irvine Medical Center
CA San Diego University of California San Diego Medical Center
CHI Chicago Rush University Medical Center
CHI Chicago Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago
CHI Chicago University of Chicago Medical Center
CHI Chicago Northwestern Memorial Hospital
CO Denver Denver Health Medical Center
CO Aurora Children’s Hospital Colorado
DC Washington, DC MedStar Washington Hospital Center
DC Washington, DC DC Children’s National Medical Center
DC Washington, DC George Washington University Hospital
GA Atlanta Emory University Hospital
GA Atlanta Grady Memorial Hospital
LAC Los Angeles University of California Los Angeles Medical Center
LAC Los Angeles Kaiser Los Angeles Medical Center
MA Boston Massachusetts General Hospital
MA Boston Boston Children’s Hospital
MA Springfield Baystate Medical Center
MA Worcester UMass Memorial Medical Center
MD Baltimore Johns Hopkins Hospital
MD Baltimore University of Maryland Medical Center
MN Fridley Allina Health’s Unity Hospital
MN St. Paul Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota – Saint Paul Campus
MN Rochester Mayo Clinic Hospital – Rochester, Saint Mary’s Campus
MN Minneapolis University of Minnesota Medical Center, West Bank Campus
NE Omaha Nebraska Medicine – Nebraska Medical Center
NJ New Brunswick Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital
NY Glen Cove North Shore System LIJ/Glen Cove Hospital
NYC NYC New York-Presbyterian/Allen Hospital
NYC NYC The Mount Sinai Hospital
NYC NYC NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation/HHC Bellevue Hospital Center
NYC NYC Montefiore Health System
OH Cleveland MetroHealth
PA Philadelphia Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
PA Philadelphia Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
PA Hershey Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center
PA Bethlehem Lehigh Valley Health Network – Muhlenberg Campus
TX Houston Texas Children’s Hospital
TX Galveston University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston
VA Charlottesville University of Virginia Medical Center
VA Richmond Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center
WA Seattle Harborview Medical Center
WA Seattle Seattle Children’s Hospital
WA Spokane Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center
WI Madison UW Health – University of Wisconsin Hospital, Madison,and the American Family Children’s Hospital, Madison
WI Milwaukee Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin – FroedtertHospital, Milwaukee
WI Milwaukee Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
WV Morgantown West Virginia University Hospital