a communication fuckup led to release of Ebola patient

[magical thyme]

Ebola patient told hospital he had been to Liberia
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/10/01/hospital-ebola-patient/16527143/

the short version is that a triage nurse asked the question and got the answer. somehow it didn't get passed on to his healthcare team.

[Eleanors38]

1. Basic geography: Not a strong suit in American edumacation.

[AverageJoe90]

2. Unfortunately, if Ebola ever did become a major problem here in the U.S., this would be.............

a HUGE factor as to why. This one incident alone proves that our private healthcare system just isn't capable of handling this alone; government intervention is needed, the GOP be damned.

[LisaL]

3. This hospital clearly has serious issues.

The nurse did ask appropriate questions. But somehow it was not communicated to his treatment team?
So why even ask questions?
In addition, even the second time he went in, his friend had to call CDC. Why didn't the hospital took appropriate steps?

[magical thyme]

4. that is being investigated and will lead to corrective action.

The reports conflict, but the latest I've seen say that it was reported to some of the team, but not all. Whether it was on the medical history and somebody missed it, or how it didn't get passed to everybody who needed to know has probably already been found out and appropriate action taken.

His friend may have chosen to, not "had" to call the CDC. We don't know that the hospital didn't take appropriate steps when he became critically ill.

One of the things I have found is that we need to report so much info in so many different places that when the ED is flat out crazy busy it is easy to miss something, either when reporting or when reading through reports.

The person or people who missed it are likely kicking their own butts right now a lot harder than any penalties thrown at them.