U.S. designates 35 hospitals to treat Ebola patients

WASHINGTON POST-- By Lena H. Sun                                                                                         Dec. 2, 2014

WASHINGTON --U.S. officials have designated 35 hospitals around the country to care for Ebola patients, part of the Obama administration’s effort in the past two months to improve domestic preparedness to cope with the deadly virus that has ravaged West Africa.

A nurse walks down a hallway alongside a patient care room in a new custom-built bio-containment unit for potential Ebola cases at Mount Sinai Hospital, in New York. (John Minchillo/AP)

 The hospitals were chosen by state health officials and hospital executives and assessed by infection control teams from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to make sure they have adequate staff, equipment, training and resources “to provide the extensive treatment necessary to care for an Ebola patient,” according to a senior administration official.

“This is a big step forward in terms of domestic preparedness in terms of any Ebola cases that might arrive here,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity (before the list was made public.) Located in key parts of the country, the hospitals are “within 200 miles of 80 percent of where returning travelers will wind up in the United States,” he said.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/us-designates-35-hospitals-to-prepare-for-future-ebola-patients/2014/12/02/d3213c18-7a1a-11e4-b821-503cc7efed9e_story.html