U.S. hospitals are worried about steep costs, unwanted attention and the possibility of scaring away other patients if they become part of the Ebola hospital network, according to an article on The Washington Post website.
“They’re saying, ‘Look, we might be willing to do this, but we don’t want to be called an Ebola hospital. We don’t want people to be cancelling appointments left and right,’” Michael Bell, director of laboratory safety at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in the article.
Only a few facilities have special biocontainment units, and they can handle only two or three patients at a time.
The U.S. hospitals that have treated Ebola patients have discovered that doing so can be costly, involving scores of nurses and other health workers.
Plus, the media attention can cause a potential loss of revenue if other patients avoid the facility. And there are concerns that a mistake could endanger employees.
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