UMMC reworking Ebola Response plan

The University of Mississippi Medical Center is preparing as if they'll receive an Ebola patient "any minute", even though the head of the Infectious Diseases Department doesn't expect it soon.

"When we start seeing cases in bigger cities with more international travel, or more West Africans living there, then I'll start to worry about cases coming to Jackson," said Dr. Skip Nolan.

Nolan says preparing for Ebola has been challenging because the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hasn't been forthcoming with information as quickly as doctors at the Medical Center would like.

Then, they learned their Ebola response policy would need to be reworked.

"We had an Ebola [Response] Policy that was about four pages long, and as far as we knew, it was a pretty good policy," Nolan said. "Then last Monday, the CDC began pushing a lot more information out to us."

The rework of the response policy is currently at 11 pages and counting, because each department is writing their part of the plan.

One area of concern is the triage nurses in the Emergency Department. Triage nurses are often the first point of contact with a patient, but UMMC hasn't decided if those nurses should change how they gear up for patients.

"That is going to remain a hole in the plan we haven't quite figured out how to plug yet," Nolan said. "But we're working on it."

UMMC has also been upgrading hands-on training.

When they first started preparing for Ebola response, nurses just demonstrated how to gear up, a sort of "show and tell".

"We found the initial training we were doing was woefully inadequate. That wasn't enough," Nolan said. "So what we're going to do is have a simulation lab, and everyone will be required to come in and put on the equipment and show the appropriate way to put the equipment on."

Workers will go through two rounds of training, then several drills. Nolan says all of this helps them be better prepared than they were.

Dawn R. Dugle is the Community Engagement Editor for The Clarion-Ledger. You can email her: ddugle@gannett.com. She is @MsWr1te on Twitter.