Both major health care providers in Peoria are redoubling their efforts in personal protective standards for health care staff.
UnityPoint Health Proctor and Methodist offered a special Ebola Preparedness training to their RN’s Monday. This comes in spite of the fact CDC standards are changing daily when it comes to Ebola healthcare practices. UnityPoint is using the basic Personal Protective Equipment standards.
Tammy Cooper is the Infection Control Practitioner for Proctor. She says its a matter of being proactive with the Emergency Department Staff on both campuses. “We don’t expect to have an Ebola case here at Proctor or in Peoria. However we want to make sure that our staff know that we are taking every step possible that if that should occur, we’ve already put into place all the protocols and have the equipment onsite and they’ve already been trained. so they don’t have a question in the back of their mind if they are going to be safe after they’ve cared for this patient.”
Cooper says about 120 RN’s from both Peoria UnityPoint Emergency Departments are participating in the training.
OSF Healthcare System is also taking the CDC Guidance. OSF has implemented an Ebola Taskforce to ensure CDC protocols are in place system wide.
UnityPoint officials also say the staff training updates will also go a long way toward reducing the transfer of the seasonal flu.