Hospital following Ebola guidelines

Sault Area Hospital staff are being trained in methods to contain the Ebola virus if it ever shows up in a patient locally.

Ron Gagnon, SAH president and CEO, told the hospital’s board of directors Monday “it (Ebola) is not a crisis in Ontario but it’s something we have to be prepared for.”

“The Ebola virus is a concern for everyone, including healthcare workers who are on the front line, and we’ve been making some really good efforts to make sure that we are ready and prepared,” Gagnon told reporters after Monday’s board meeting.

A steering committee has been established at SAH to educate and train staff to take extra care if a suspected case of Ebola should arise.

Eric Hoskins, Ontario Minister of Health and Long Term Care, and Dr. David Mowat, Ontario’s interim Chief Medical Officer of Health, issued a statement and a set of government guidelines Friday to healthcare facilities across the province, designed to contain and treat Ebola if it strikes.

Ila Watson, SAH chief human resources officer, is head of the steering committee putting those guidelines in place at the local hospital.

“We did some work several weeks ago to add to our preparedness around the Ebola virus,” Watson told reporters Monday.

Since Friday’s governmental guidelines were introduced, the training has continued.

“There was training of staff in key areas like emergency, ICU, people in housekeeping and porters, those kinds of areas where a suspected case of Ebola might be encountered,” Watson said.

“The most likely place where a person suspected of having Ebola is going to appear in our hospital is likely to be in emergency, so the key screening factor is whether people have travelled to West Africa, and if there is severe headache, fever, diarrhea, vomiting, muscle pain, sore throat and stomach pain.”

“It wouldn’t be those symptoms alone…it needs to be connected to people who have travelled in that area (West Africa) or been exposed to people who have travelled in that area,” Watson said.

“It’s expected that anyone suspected of having Ebola would stay in an isolation room that does exist in the emergency department, and anyone suspected of having the Ebola virus would be cared for by two nurses specifically caring for just that patient, who are trained and are using the appropriate personal protective equipment.”

There are specific guidelines in place for putting on and removing special protective clothing for healthcare workers caring for a patient suspected of having Ebola.

10 Ontario hospitals have been designated as referral centres for potential cases of Ebola, the nearest of which is Sudbury’s Health Sciences North.

A patient suspected of having Ebola at SAH would, after initial specialized care, be transported by air ambulance to one of those 10 hospitals. 

“For healthcare workers in Sault Ste. Marie that’s an opportunity to reduce some anxiety because we would not be expecting to be keeping people here for long term treatment,” Watson said.