“Ask. Isolate. Call.”
Those are the state’s instructions that every Colorado hospital must follow when a patient comes in with flu-like symptoms.
Medical workers must ask whether the person has traveled recently to the West African nations of Sierra Leone, Liberia or Guinea.
If yes, any suspected case, whether fully symptomatic or not, must be isolated in a single-patient hospital room, with private bathroom, closed door and no visitors.
The hospital must report the case to the local or state health department, which will respond immediately, along with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to assess the case and begin contact tracing.
Officials would determine how and when the patient would be transferred to one of the state’s designated Ebola-care hospitals.
That list currently includes the University of Colorado Hospital, Denver Health and Children’s Hospital Colorado, said Dr. Larry Wolk, director and chief medical officer of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. The list might be expanded.
Colorado health officials presented the state’s Ebola preparedness strategy to media at CDPHE offices on Tuesday.
Wolk said he believes the likelihood of Ebola patients in Colorado to remain very low, but the health department and the Colorado Hospital Association are assessing hospitals’ readiness to care for them.
All health care workers must undergo repeated, rigorous training in how to safely don and doff personal protective equipment, which must be supervised each time, Wolk said.
Electa Draper: 303-954-1276, edraper@denverpost.com or
