Aiken Hospital Plans For H1N1 Flu Treatment
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Aiken Hospital Plans For H1N1 Flu Treatment
It?s what most of us are talking about: the flu, and the fear that comes along with it. One local hospital is preparing for the worst, and hoping for the best. The staff at Aiken Regional Medical...
It’s what most of us are talking about: the flu, and the fear that comes along with it. One local hospital is preparing for the worst, and hoping for the best. The staff at Aiken Regional Medical Centers wants to make sure if you don’t come in with the flu…you don’t walk out with it either. WJBF News Channel 6’s Joy Howe reports.
Published: September 1, 2009
Updated: September 2, 2009
Aiken, SC—Meet Don Wright: he’s the main man at Aiken Regional Medical Centers (ARMC) when it comes to all things flu. And this year, he says, yes, the flu has hit earlier….but he’s not surprised.
Don Wright, Infection Preventionist: “We are very prepared for this. We started preparing for this even before the H1N1 virus was even identified in Mexico, just because of the way flu viruses have behaved historically.“
Each week, ARMC staff meets to discuss flu viruses, including the H1N1 strain…how quickly it’s spreading, the number of patients with flu-symptoms, and the plan to deal with it.
Wright: “The plan is supposed to carry on the natural case of patients who are here who need every-day ordinary treatment.“
The emergency room at Aiken Regional is designed to have certain sections shut-off.
If you walk in to the ER now with flu-like symptoms, you’re asked to wait near the door…put on a mask….and you’ll be taken back to a sealed-off section.
That way, those waiting with other emergencies aren’t exposed.
Wright: “The beauty of being able to separate someone who might have flu-like symptoms, from someone who might need attention on a broken arm, is the fact that the person who comes in with a broken arm won’t leave with something they didn’t come in with.“
If the beds in the “flu” section fill-up, there are more beds and areas that can be added…there’s even a mobile unit that could be brought in later this fall—that’s when medical experts predict the swine flu could become more of a pandemic.
But Don says, we’re not there yet…at Aiken Regional, he says no one has even been hospitalized for the flu. Patients have been treated and sent home.
They can’t say for sure what lies ahead, but at Aiken Regional, they say they can prepare to shut the flu out, as best they can.
Wright adds as a rule of thumb, to be exposed to someone who has the flu, you have to be 6 feet from someone who is coughing or sneezing on you. Just walking by them, generally shouldn’t expose you to the flu virus.
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