"Have you travelled outside the US in the past 3 weeks?"
Signs like this are posted all over the Massachusetts General Hospital emergency room, while other signs tell people who come in with flu-like symptoms to follow common sense guidelines.
NECN visited Mass. General to find out how protocols are being handled there after some unsettling information from Dallas, where a man is being treated for Ebola.
The victim went to the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, told the staff he had flu-like symptoms and recently travelled to Liberia. However, the information wasn't passed along.
The patient was sent home with antibiotics, until he returned to the ER sicker several days later, possibly putting others at risk for exposure.
Doctor Paul Biddinger is Mass. General's medical director for emergency preparedness. Since the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, he says one of the most important things they do is take a travel history from every patient. They've also recently re-trained staff on how important that history is.
"If you have an infectious symptom, we want to know where you've traveled to in the last three weeks," said Biddinger.
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But even if the patient doesn't volunteer the information, they ask anyway.
Biddinger says the travel history question is built into their electronic triage record as a prompt for nurses.
NECN also asked Massachusetts General about their Ebola preparedness plan. They say they first identify if they have a possible case. So far they haven't.
If there is a suspected case, Biddinger says they put the patient in an isolation room in the emergency department. Isolation rooms are different because they have different airflow capabilities.
Any staff interacting with the patient also puts on the proper personal protective equipment as they continue the care and investigation of the sick patient.
