News
CDC Creates New Ebola Regulations
By: Ann Jacob
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The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) is teaming up with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Emergency Nurses Association to fight the Ebola epidemic.
They also announced strategies to establish procedures to assist emergency personnel when evaluating and managing suspected Ebola patients.
Experts will discuss the CDC’s newly published guidelines during ACEP’s annual meeting to discuss key issues. The guidelines establish a uniform procedure for medical workers and reflect lessons from recent experiences of U.S. hospitals caring for Ebola patients.
Emergency medical staff are the individuals most at risk for contamination because they are on the front lines when it comes to contact with patients possibly effected by Ebola.
“It’s critical to protect the emergency medical staff who are on the front lines of caring for patients who may have Ebola,” said Alex Rosenau, MD, FACEP, immediate past president of ACEP.
Some of the CDC’s new procedures include assessing patients travel history and providing direct observation of care workers taking on and off personal protective equipment.
The new guidelines can be found at http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/pdf/ed-algorithm-management-patients-possible-ebola.pdf