Two experienced Emory Healthcare nurses from Emory University Hospital's Serious Communicable Disease Unit have traveled to Texas to provide consultative support in the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) and infection control measures while caring for patients infected with Ebola virus disease.
The nurses are traveling at the request of the CDC and in coordination with Texas Health Resources, the largest health care system in North Texas in terms of patients served. Texas Health Resources is the parent company for Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas. The Emory nurses will provide consultation and information sharing to health care workers within the system, but will not provide any direct patient care.
“Emory Healthcare is proud to extend any help we can to our health care colleagues in Texas,” says John Fox, president and CEO of Emory Healthcare. “After having several conversations with the CEO at Texas Health Resources, we believe this is the best way that we can provide them with information and procedures we have learned in our caring for three patients to date infected with Ebola virus.”
A nurse clinician who has directly cared for Emory’s patients infected with Ebola virus, and a clinical nurse specialist who wrote Emory Healthcare’s personal protective equipment (PPE) and infection control protocols and is also an experienced safety observer in the isolation unit, will speak to Texas Health employees today. They will also demonstrate the donning and doffing of PPE and discuss issues of caring for these patients while wearing full PPE.
“By sending two of our nurses who have been directly involved in the care of Emory patients infected with the Ebola virus, we hope to provide on the ground standard operating procedures for PPE usage, based on CDC guidelines,” says Nancye Feistritzer, RN, DNP, chief nursing officer at Emory University Hospital. “We also want to be a resource to other organizations who are facing the need to train direct care providers and to ensure adherence to protocols designed to keep the care team safe.”
Barclay Berdan, CEO of Texas Health Resources, commented, “We are grateful to have the experts from Emory University Hospital’s Serious Communicable Disease Unit share their experiences treating and containing Ebola.”
The Emory Healthcare nurses will work in collaboration with the CDC during today’s session.
The nurses are traveling at the request of the CDC and in coordination with Texas Health Resources, the largest health care system in North Texas in terms of patients served. Texas Health Resources is the parent company for Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas. The Emory nurses will provide consultation and information sharing to health care workers within the system, but will not provide any direct patient care.
“Emory Healthcare is proud to extend any help we can to our health care colleagues in Texas,” says John Fox, president and CEO of Emory Healthcare. “After having several conversations with the CEO at Texas Health Resources, we believe this is the best way that we can provide them with information and procedures we have learned in our caring for three patients to date infected with Ebola virus.”
A nurse clinician who has directly cared for Emory’s patients infected with Ebola virus, and a clinical nurse specialist who wrote Emory Healthcare’s personal protective equipment (PPE) and infection control protocols and is also an experienced safety observer in the isolation unit, will speak to Texas Health employees today. They will also demonstrate the donning and doffing of PPE and discuss issues of caring for these patients while wearing full PPE.
“By sending two of our nurses who have been directly involved in the care of Emory patients infected with the Ebola virus, we hope to provide on the ground standard operating procedures for PPE usage, based on CDC guidelines,” says Nancye Feistritzer, RN, DNP, chief nursing officer at Emory University Hospital. “We also want to be a resource to other organizations who are facing the need to train direct care providers and to ensure adherence to protocols designed to keep the care team safe.”
Barclay Berdan, CEO of Texas Health Resources, commented, “We are grateful to have the experts from Emory University Hospital’s Serious Communicable Disease Unit share their experiences treating and containing Ebola.”
The Emory Healthcare nurses will work in collaboration with the CDC during today’s session.