Page 18 - Modern Healthcare (January 2020)

Public health
U.S. hospitals
advised to
prepare
for Wuhan
coronavirus
By Tara Bannow
U.S. HOSPITALS ARE WARNED to Nearly 900 people have contracted the virus,
prepare fi nancially and operationally to most of them in mainland China.
contend with a potentially deadly out-
break of the Wuhan virus that at dead-
GETTY IMAGES
line had killed 20 people and sickened
hundreds more in China. more of the costs. For the Wuhan virus, that sense of prevention and precaution
Although the respiratory virus out- the potential ripple eff ect is far bigger, home,” he said. Schaff ner said he would
break is in its early stages, it has already Wolf wrote. “An epidemic in a country be surprised if other hospitals were not
left a mounting human and econom- like China, where foreign citizens are implementing similar protocols.
ic toll, wrote Matt Wolf, who leads more likely to travel to the U.S. for leisure, Th e CDC fi rst warned medical provid-
accounting fi rm RSM’s healthcare val- only magnifi es the problem,” he said. ers to look out for patients with respira-
uation consulting group. Last week, the tory symptoms and a history of travel to
Centers for Disease Control and Preven- Beyond China and the U.S., the Wu- Wuhan. Th e agency is developing guid-
tion announced the fi rst domestic case han virus has spread to Japan, South Ko- ance for testing and managing the illness,
of the virus, technically called 2019 Nov- rea, Th ailand, France and several other including at home. Th e CDC plans to
el Coronavirus, in a Washington state countries. Th e Lunar New Year holiday distribute a diagnostic test soon that will
patient who had recently returned from began Jan. 25, which means many peo- speed up detection time. Currently, test-
Wuhan, China. Another case was con- ple in China will be taking time off and ing must take place at the CDC.
fi rmed in Chicago, the Associated Press traveling for the weeklong holiday. On Jan. 17, the agency implemented
reported. Nashville’s Vanderbilt University Med- screenings at airports in Los Angeles,
At deadline, more than 900 people ical Center announced last week it had New York and San Francisco and later
were confi rmed as having contracted changed its electronic prompts so that added them in Atlanta and Chicago.
the disease, most of them in mainland patients entering the hospital, emer- Originally thought to spread only
China, according to a dashboard com- gency department or clinics with a fever from animal-to-animal, the CDC says
piled by Johns Hopkins University. or respiratory symptoms will be asked there is growing evidence that limited
Wolf compared the outbreak to the if they have visited China recently or person-to-person spread is happening
deadly severe acute respiratory syn- have had contact with anyone who has. as well, similar to how the SARS virus
drome virus in 2002 and 2003, which Patients at risk of having the virus will spread.
spooked investors and prompted Chi- be placed in isolation, said Dr. William Given there have been relatively few
nese markets to plunge. He also cited the Schaff ner, professor of infectious diseas- deaths in China with respect to the
Ebola virus, which spread through West es and preventive medicine at VUMC number of infections, Schaff ner said
Africa from 2014 to 2016, kill- and a member of its infec- the Wuhan virus’ mortality rate is so far
ing more than 11,000 people. tion-control committee. much lower than that of SARS or Mid-
Ebola also killed 11 people in THE TAKEAWAY “It should off er reassur- dle East respiratory syndrome, both of
the U.S. U.S. hospitals are ance to people in the com- which were as high as 50%.
U.S. hospitals spent more being warned to munity that we’re aware of On the other hand, U.S. hospitals will
than $360 million prepar- prepare fi nancially the events that are unfold- see thousands of fl u patients and many
ing for potential Ebola cas- and operationally for ing in China and now else- deaths from the illness, he said. “Fa-
es, with those designated as an outbreak of the where, including the U.S., miliarity … sometimes breeds noncha-
frontline centers shouldering Wuhan virus. and that we’re bringing lance,” Schaff ner said. 

16 Modern Healthcare | January 27, 2020