After infecting two nurses (SO FAR!), exposing 74+ other workers, as well as countless patients, visitors, the greater Dallas community, and now two planeloads of airline passengers and crew plus the Greater Cleveland Area to Ebola, and amid revelations of massive incompetence at every level, THP Dallas is being removed from the picture regarding care for Ebola patients.
Amber Vinson was moved to the Emory Hospital Infectious Disease unit yesterday, and today, Nina Pham is expected to be moved to the NIH's BL4 unit in the immediate future.
Hopefully, removing THP from the picture after both anonymous and open whistleblower revelations that they were an unmitigated clown show in this response, from the initial moment Thomas Duncan first crossed their ER doorstep, will preclude any further displays of assclownery on their part, and save the equally incompetent and unprepared health officials in Dallas a notable amount of flesh on their well-mangled asses.
All this leaves now is the open question of how many more among the hundreds exposed since late September, including 70+ THP staff members, will yet be added to the lengthening roster of US Ebola patients, but at least someone in charge somewhere can recognize naked incompetence when he sees it, and is willing to break the chain of stupid that's been paying off hourly, like a broken slot machine.
While THP-Dallas is now pretty much set to be devastated by an inevitable and sadly well-earned blizzard of lawsuits over the next few years, it's worth noting two important things:
1) THP is and has been, by every account, a fine hospital for normal patients undergoing typical care as one would expect to find, and even on this response, they were certainly no worse than any one of a thousand other US hospitals would have been. They simply had the bad luck to go first, and botch everything possible in every way, from Day One; and
2) The Assclown Overlords at the CDC remain untouched, despite their central and ongoing role in setting up, maintaining, and even encouraging the monumentally horrible response of this hospital, as well as city, county, and state health officials throughout every aspect of this crisis.
Hopefully this is only the beginning of changes, and not the sum total of all of them.
Shep,
ReplyDeleteYou do great work and you write well and with conviction.
I maintain that this event is going to demonstrate what percentage of our medical system exists soley in order to generate ICD-9 codes for Medicare reimbursement and what percentage exists to improve the survivability of patients with disease, net of iatrogenic error.
Lessee how well Yale-New Haven does, now. Whoo hooo, one in my backyard.
ReplyDeletePer the always excitable Daily Mail, even after treating Duncan the nurses weren't being provided with adequate PPE for Pham ... and note this nurse who attended to her spoke out despite the hospital's threat to fire anyone talking to the media.
ReplyDeleteI can well believe the rumors of an impending ICU strike you mentioned, and perhaps that forced the hand of the no longer to be "Dallas Ebola Magnet Hospital of Excellence."
No tumbrels for the CDC bureaucrats yet; but then, at this rate, it's just possible that none will be required. With this miraculously wise and pragmatic decision, they've shown that they're able to learn from (and even repent of) their worst mistakes. In government, that's a rare quality that should be cherished and encouraged. . .particularly when, as now, it's so desperately needed.
ReplyDelete