Wednesday, December 10, 2014

New Tiered System for Classifying Hospitals and Other Emergency Care Settings

On December 2, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued guidance to assist acute care hospitals and other emergency care settings (including urgent care clinics) develop preparedness plans for patients with possible Ebola Virus Disease (EVD).

Please click here to see the guidance, Interim Guidance for U.S. Hospital Preparedness for Patients with Possible or Confirmed Ebola Virus Disease: A Framework for a Tiered Approach or or cut and paste this URL into your browser: 

http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/hcp/us-hospital-preparedness.html .

While all Colorado acute healthcare facilities must be prepared to identify, isolate, and evaluate patients with possible EVD and notify CDPHE, the roles and the preparations required to be ready to perform these tasks will differ by facility. Acute healthcare facilities can serve one of three roles: frontline healthcare facilities, Ebola assessment hospitals, and Ebola treatment centers (Colorado has three Ebola treatment centers). In some cases, a hospital may be prepared to serve in more than one role (e.g. some hospitals may serve simultaneously as an Ebola assessment hospital and an Ebola treatment center).

If you have questions about Ebola, call 303-692-2700. Further guidance and information is available on the CDC website: http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/index.html.