"Duncan was left in a nonquarantined zone for several hours, and a nurse supervisor faced resistance from hospital authorities after demanding that Duncan be moved to an isolation unit, according to the union’s statement. Additionally, Duncan’s lab specimens were sent through the hospital’s tube system, potentially contaminating the system, the nurses said.
Nurses who interacted with Duncan were given the option of wearing special N95 masks, but some supervisors said the masks were not necessary, the nurses said, according to the statement.
“For their necks, nurses had to use medical tape, that is not impermeable and has permeable seams, to wrap around their necks in order to protect themselves, and had to put on the tape and take it off on their own,” the statement reads.
“Nurses had to interact with Mr. Duncan with whatever protective equipment was available, at a time when he had copious amounts of diarrhea and vomiting which produces a lot of contagious fluids.”
A hospital spokesman did not respond to specific claims by the nurses but said the hospital has not received similar complaints.
"Patient and employee safety is our greatest priority and we take compliance very seriously," hospital spokesman Wendell Watson said in a statement. "We have numerous measures in place to provide a safe working environment, including mandatory annual training and a 24/7 hotline and other mechanisms that allow for anonymous reporting.
"Our nursing staff is committed to providing quality, compassionate care, as we have always known, and as the world has seen firsthand in recent days. We will continue to review and respond to any concerns raised by our nurses and all employees."
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/dallas-nurses-hospital-sloppy-ebola-protocols-union/story?id=26205956
At this point, if I were the nurse in the Texas Presbyterian Hospital I'd be demanding to be transferred to one of the other hospitals that capable of giving proper care.
This hospital owes a heck of an apology to the nation. They screwed up royally, time and time again!
PHOTO: Nina Pham is seen in this undated handout photo provided by her family.
The problems encountered at the Dallas hospital are reflective of training and equipment insufficiencies at hospitals across the country, Deborah Burger, co-president of National Nurses United, told ABC News.
“What concerns me is that this validated what our systems say all over the country throughout the last two months, that hospitals are not prepared to take care of Ebola patients,” she said. “It is disturbing to have all of our concerns validated in one hospital.”
The criticisms follow a Tuesday admission by Thomas Frieden, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director, who said he regrets not sending a larger team of experts to Texas when Duncan was first diagnosed with Ebola.
The CDC could have sent a "more robust management team and been more hands on from day one," Frieden said. "Looking back, we say we should have put an even larger team on the ground immediately."