JACKSON — The University of Mississippi Medical Center is reworking its Ebola response policy.
“We had an Ebola (Response) Policy that was about four pages long, and as far as we knew, it was a pretty good policy,” Dr. Skip Nolan, director of the infectious diseases department, told The Clarion-Ledger.
“Then last Monday, the CDC began pushing a lot more information out to us.”
The rework of the response policy is currently at 11 pages and counting, because each department is writing their part of the plan.
Nolan said one area of concern is the triage nurses in the Emergency Department. Triage nurses are often the first point of contact with a patient, but UMMC hasn’t decided if those nurses should change how they gear up for patients.
“That is going to remain a hole in the plan we haven’t quite figured out how to plug yet,” Nolan said. “But we’re working on it.”
UMMC has also been upgrading hands-on training.
When they first started preparing for Ebola response, nurses just demonstrated how to gear up, a sort of “show and tell,” Nolan said.
“We found the initial training we were doing was woefully inadequate. That wasn’t enough,” Nolan said. “So what we’re going to do is have a simulation lab, and everyone will be required to come in and put on the equipment and show the appropriate way to put the equipment on.”
Workers will go through two rounds of training, then several drills, he said.
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