Flu season complicates matters with symptoms same as Ebola
YOUNGSTOWN
First responders to potential Ebola cases — fire, police and ambulance personnel — are looking for answers.
They say they need to know what training and personal protective equipment are required to keep themselves and those they serve and transport safe.
“Unfortunately, no one has a nice clear protocol for first responders,” said Randy Pugh, vice president and chief of operations for Lane Lifetrans Paramedics in Austintown.
Lane has ordered Tyvec brand PPE suits. The issue is the safety of the first-responder personnel and everybody else, Pugh said.
“We watch for information released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and are vigilant and careful when we go out and question people the right way.”
The International Association of Emergency Dispatchers has released a list of questions that pops up on the dispatchers’ screen to be asked of the caller while the ambulance is on its way, Pugh said.
Questions include, “Has the caller traveled to West Africa in the last three weeks and had contact with anyone who has?”
“The computerized system is phenomenal. It really helps the way we respond and helps the dispatcher with questions to ask that can be relayed to the crew so they can take precautions. It’s a whole other layer that will help us a lot. We don’t want to catch Ebola or spread it,” Pugh said.
“The troublesome thing to me is those health care workers in Texas. They were in a hospital setting and controlled environment and have better equipment than we do, and they still got sick,” said Ken Joseph, chief paramedic for Emergency Medical Transport, formerly Action Ambulance, in Warren.
Joseph said EMT is one of the largest Federal Emergency Management Agency subcontractors in Ohio and its personnel have received a lot of disaster response training on disaster through FEMA. But, he said, supervisory personnel will get their first Ebola training at a workshop offered Monday by ValleyCare Trumbull Memorial Hospital.
As for safety gear, Joseph said: “I always thought ours was the latest, but we don’t have what I saw on television. As large as we are, we have never been told what equipment is necessary to safely transport Ebola patients. We stay in touch with the CDC for the latest information.”
The Ohio Department of Health, meanwhile, is adding to its stockpile of health care personal protective equipment to support any requests from frontline health care providers.
With a team of health care workers treating a single Ebola patient using as many as 240 sets of personal protective equipment per day, hospitals can quickly use up whatever supplies they may have. ODH owns a stockpile of about 102,000 face masks, 2,600 goggles, 1,600 shoe covers, 575 coveralls, 1,350 hoods, 105,000 gloves, 29,000 respirators, and 7,000 gowns. Those figures increase daily as new shipments arrive.
“We don’t even know what to order at this point. We are going to limit our exposure and make calls before we transport, but we are still going to take care of the public. That’s why we’re in business. We do what we do because we want to,” Joseph said.
Further complicating the situation is the flu season.
“That’s what’s frightening. Sometimes we transport 20 patients a day to the hospital. Can you imagine, every time someone calls with a temp and flu-like symptoms, we’re going to have to gown up,” Pugh said.
That’s the hospital’s advantage. It knows when someone is coming with a high temperature, and can ask the right questions and prepare, he said.
“What we have to do is think about what our plan of action would be on how to transport, gown up with the personal protective equipment we have and communicate with the hospital to make sure it is prepared to receive the patient,” Pugh said.
There is more for ambulance companies to do once the patient is delivered to the hospital. The ambulance has to be decontaminated.
The ambulance is prepared by removing all non-essential equipment and putting plastic on the floors and walls. CDC instructions on how to decontaminate are followed.
“The answer is to wipe down the potentially contaminated ambulance with bleach,” said Eric Wrask, general manager for Rural Metro Ambulance in Youngstown.
Rural Metro is in the process of obtaining the gear it needs and has personal protective equipment for infectious diseases, Wrask said.
He said Rural Metro, a national company, will be proactive in making sure it has what is needed to ensure the safety of its employees.
“There are differences of opinion with the CDC and other organizations about what is needed to protect ourselves,” he said.
Youngstown Police Chief Robin Lees said if officers responded to a call and suspected Ebola was present, they would summon proper medical and Mahoning County Hazardous Materials Response Team (HAZMAT) personnel.
Lees said that since the 2001 terrorist attacks and the threats of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons were feared, officers have received training from police academies on how to deal with situations that pose health risks.