http://www.newsmax.com/PrintTemplate.aspx/?nodeid=601658Newsmax
Dallas Hospital Apologizes for Ebola Errors in Newspaper Ad
Sunday, October 19, 2014 05:06 PM
By: Greg Richter
The Dallas hospital that treated the first Ebola patient diagnosed inside the United States has apologized in a full-page ad taken out in two newspapers on Sunday.
Texas Health Resources CEO Barclay Berdan admitted in the letter that the staff at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital made "mistakes" when it initially sent Thomas Eric Duncan back home without testing him for Ebola, even though his chart said he had been to Liberia, one of three West African countries where the virus killing thousands.
But Berdan said media reports are incorrect that say the hospital did not follow proper protocols from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Two nurses who treated Duncan, Nina Pham and Amber Vinson, also have tested positive for Ebola and have been moved to hospitals with special isolation units.
"Although we had begun our Ebola training and preparedness activities, training and education programs had not been fully deployed before the virus struck," Berdan wrote in the letter published in the Dallas Morning News and Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
The hospital has "acted aggressively" to improve its response, the letter reads, by increasing training and using the "buddy system" for health care workers to watch each other put on and remove protective equipment.
The letter said the hospital will continue making changes as necessary and share the information it learns from an investigation with others to avoid a repeat of the problems it suffered.
"Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas is a safe place for employees and patients," the letter said.
