Four Minnesota hospitals have been chosen as destination treatment centers for Ebola cases that emerge in the state as part of a new strategy to maximize the recovery odds for patients and minimize the risks to health care workers.
The University of Minnesota Medical Center in Minneapolis, Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Unity Hospital in Fridley and Children's Hospital in St. Paul were designated by the Minnesota Hospital Association after consultation among the state's hospitals.
Every hospital in the state is expected to have training and isolation procedures to handle patients who walk in with Ebola warning signs — particularly, high fever and a recent travel history in West Africa — but confirmed cases will then be transferred.
Only a month ago, hospital officials believed treatment within the admitting hospitals would work. But then, at a hospital in Dallas, the first U.S.-diagnosed patient died and two of his nurses were infected despite wearing protective gear.
"The original thinking was that would be sufficient," said Lawrence Massa, president and chief executive of the hospital association, "but it obviously didn't work in the first case that we had."
The four hospitals were selected because they have sufficient training, equipment, quarantine procedures and space to treat an Ebola patient today.
A team from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will visit the sites soon to assess their readiness.
The U hospital selected an entire critical care unit on the 10th floor of a building on its West Bank campus because it is isolated from other patient care floors, across the river from the main campus, and detached from its pediatric hospital.
