Dartmouth-Hitchcock to Accept Ebola Patients

If a patient is diagnosed with Ebola in New Hampshire, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center will be the sole hospital in the state designated to provide long-term care.

State health officials said Wednesday that while all hospitals in the state are capable of identifying and isolating patients with symptoms of Ebola infection, not all of them can provide long-term care and deal with the complications of the virus.

There are currently no suspected Ebola patients in New Hampshire, health officials say. The only U.S. patients confirmed to have Ebola are in Dallas, where a man traveling from Liberia developed Ebola and transmitted it to two health care workers caring for him.

Health officials say they can better serve New Hampshire patients by focusing advanced preparations on one hospital.