Windsor Regional Hospital says it’s ready to treat any Ebola case that may come its way.
The Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care released its recommendations last Friday and by that night, changes were already implemented at the hospital.
There is also a new warning posted for patients entering the hospital.
Screening for infectious disease is nothing new for the hospital. As of last August, they added a question to the screening protocol: Have you travelled to Africa in the last 21 days?
Travel to Africa is no longer the only concern, the hospital now wants patients to notify them if they’ve travelled anywhere outside of Canada in the last month.
As part of the precautions, staff members are getting refresher training to use personal protective gear.
Of the 4,000 staff, about half of them will be trained to use the protective equipment needed to deal with patients who have any kind of infectious disease.
Training will continue over the next few weeks.
The hospital says it is prepared for both a positive Ebola result, as well as confirmed Ebola patients.
“We've had daily communication with staff around Ebola since July. This has increased over the last 10 days. The numbers of communications coming from everywhere have increased,” says Karen McCullough, the hospital’s CEO.
“What that means for us, as soon as new guidelines come forward, take them and translate them into how we can implement the changes.”
Emergency room physician, Paul Bradford, says it’s important to keep the risk in perspective.
“All the things about coughing, hand washing, (coughing) into arm, not hands, all those things are just being careful.”
