Hospital knew all along it was in wrong, but, corpmedia jumped to blame Obama, anyway.

[blm]

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ebola-virus-outbreak/texas-hospital-apologizes-mistakes-ebola-treatment-full-page-ad-n229196

Texas Hospital Apologizes for 'Mistakes' in Ebola Treatment in Full-Page Ad

The Dallas hospital where Ebola victim Thomas Eric Duncan was treated, and where two nurses who worked on him contracted the disease, apologized again for making "mistakes" — this time in a letter published via full-page ad in two local newspapers Sunday.
>>>>>>>


Me: The other aspect to this event still left unscrutinized is the Texas Health Department - Did they deliberately ignore Obama's August and September call to all leaders here and abroad to be alert and prepared to contain any possible case of Ebola because of the culture of hatred towards any federal government guidelines and to President Obama that Rick Perry and Republican leaders have fostered continuously in recent years?

[KittyWampus]

1. hope Rachel picks this up.

[blm]

2. It's dereliction of duty for press corps to continue to ignore this.

Even RW extremists targeting police and law enforcement can't break into heavy rotation on the news cycles. How quickly did Las Vegas and Pennsylvania shootings disappear from the national news networks' heavy rotation?

[KittyWampus]

3. the Dallas County Health Department was also involved but they recieve little scrutiny.

they are just mentioned in passing. Glossed over.

it's up to Democrats to make this an issue and we both know how sad Dems can be when it comes to making attack ads and trying to counter corpmedia's Republican garbage.

[malaise]

5. All the contradictions of public health versus privatization of healthcare

are now visible. Dems should scream from rooftops.
I read yesterday that the hospital outsourced staffing including doctors.
From Duncan was turned away on his first visit, the hospital was at fault.

[KittyWampus]

7. Dems should be, but apparently aren't. Dems don't have a "Grover Norquist"

apparently. They don't have anyone creating talking points and distributing them.

We may dislike the Republican "lock step" and Grover Norquist and his death grip on the rightwing but it is effective.

[malaise]

8. Were I running the show

Grover would be grovelling in said bathtub about now.
I would tear him to shreds with shrinking government.

Still the ReTHUG Cuts Kill is a great ad.

[BarbaRosa]

53. Wow, I just veiwed this on the You Tube page,

judging by the responses this cut a little too close for some peoples comfort. Once again the truth is proving to be uncomfortable for those on the right.

[blm]

56. yep

.

[librechik]

4. They shouldn't have bothered. There will still be lawsuits. n/t

[malaise]

6. But but but

They hired the big law firm before these 'ads'.

[B2G]

9. The CDC has made mistakes too

They are changing their protocols for PPE.

Which is why the nurses were infected.

Plenty of blame to go around here.

[KittyWampus]

11. interesting how one or two DU'ers constantly need to bring up the CDC.

Whenever the other involved parties are mentioned some seem compelled to change the subject back to the CDC and away from Republicans, Dallas Health Dept and the Hospital management and corporate leadership.

[B2G]

14. Interesting how some DUers feel such a strong need

to defend the CDC at all costs.

I have stated repeatedly that the hospital made mistakes, the most significant being in not admitting Duncan when he showed up the first time.

But my reasoning isn't so clouded by a pathological need to defend the feds at all costs to the point where I can't see reality.

[blm]

18. Sorry, but, CDC guidelines sufficed at other facilities.

There was NO PREPARATION at that Texas hospital for ANY case of serious infectious disease, let alone ebola, and Texas' recent history has been focused on defying US government guidelines for pretty much everything.

Deregulate. Deregulate. Deregulate.

[B2G]

19. If their guidelines were so spectacular

why are they changing them?

Their guidelines allowed for exposed skin. The reason our BSL4 facilities have been successful is because they go above and beyond those guidelines.

[KittyWampus]

22. The hospital and state authorities didn't follow ANY guidelines at all.

YOUR pathological (your words in this thread, not mine) need to focus solely on the CDC and ignore the primary weak links is notable.

[B2G]

25. None? Why was the CDC even onsite then?

Weren't they consulting, providing guidance? They had a team on the ground the day he tested positive.

What were they even doing there then?

And notable of what? Me flunking some liberal purity test because I dare to suggest that the CDC could have done better?

[blm]

32. You didn't say CDC could do better - you chose to blame them when they didn't cause

the infections spreading to those nurses - the Texas hospital did. You have invested yourself in making this story all about blaming CDC, when those nurses were infected based on the early failures of the Texas hospital and those in charge.

You have invested yourself in the exact same narrative as the lazy-minded corporate media pushing the preferred narrative of the same Republicans who spend most every waking hour DEFYING federal guidelines for most everything, including infectious diseases - heck, any hospital complying with CDC will just take too much away from the corporate stockholders, doesn't it?

[B2G]

33. Did I miss the announcement where

they found out exactly how those nurses were infected?

Was it in the first few days when the hospital was scrambling to figure out what to do, or in the last when they were following CDC guidelines with insufficient CDC recommended PPE?

Cause I missed the root cause announcement.

[blm]

36. Ignore the nurses who spoke out because you invested yourself in protecting

the priorities of the hospital's corporate elite.

The hospital knows damn well they screwed this up on so many levels. They also know those nurses who spoke out about the complete lack of preparation for any infectious diseases at that hospital were telling the truth. The Republican narrative has been 100% blame of WH and federal agencies while protecting the corporate culture of neglect in the healthcare service industry.

[joeglow3]

42. You really need to take a deep breath and re-read the thread

You will see you are the only one defending any particular side at all costs and claiming anything other than that makes you a lapdog of the right. If you are intellectually honest, you will admit no one has "defended the corporate culture" or placed 100% blame on a government agency. That was YOUR attempt to shut someone up because you could not discuss the issue based solely on the technical merits that they were laying out.

[blm]

44. LOL - I hope you reread the thread and your own exaggerations in your post.

I clearly said a few times that the CDC tightening areas where they observed weaknesses doesn't bolster the poster's argument that CDC deserves the focus of the blame from corporate media running with the GOP's narrative. I didn't exaggerate as you claim.

BTW - the poster clearly said that the rest of us were posing the argument that the CDC 'performed spectacularly' yet I couldn't find one post that made that claim - did you?

[kestrel91316]

47. They came in initially to do the CONTACT TRACING and FOLLOWUP. They didn't come to

hold hands and make sure people followed basic guidelines that work just fine elsewhere when people train with them. The hospital assured them they had things well under control and they unfortunately took them at their word.

They won't get fooled again, least of all in a red state.

[blm]

27. They worked at the other hospitals that actually implemented protocols earlier.

They tightened up their protocols for this because they did see areas where they could tighten them up.

Why do you need to pretend that it was CDC failures that led to the infections of the 2 nurses when the nurses on the ground there are even saying that it was the failure of the hospital?

[B2G]

30. Guess Obama didn't get the memo

saying that the CDC perfomed so spectacularly.

snips:

WASHINGTON — Beneath the calming reassurance that President Obama has repeatedly offered during the Ebola crisis, there is a deepening frustration, even anger, with how the government has handled key elements of the response.

Those frustrations spilled over when Mr. Obama convened his top aides in the Cabinet room after canceling his schedule on Wednesday. Medical officials were providing information that later turned out to be wrong. Guidance to local health teams was not adequate. It was unclear which Ebola patients belonged in which threat categories.

“It’s not tight,” a visibly angry Mr. Obama said of the response, according to people briefed on the meeting.

At the meeting on Wednesday, officials said, Mr. Obama placed much of the blame on the C.D.C., which provided shifting information about which threat category patients were in, and did not adequately train doctors and nurses at hospitals with Ebola cases on the proper protective procedures.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/18/us/amid-assurances-on-ebola-obama-is-said-to-seethe.html?_r=0#

[blm]

35. Why pretend that this is about CDC 'performing spectacularly'?

You need to PRETEND that this is the argument being posited when no one has countered with that 'spectacular' point about CDC, and it has only been offered by YOU as part of YOUR refusal to defend your postings honestly.

Tightening up protocols where the CDC saw potential flaws is a far cry from being the reason the 2 nurses were infected.

Why are you so invested in the smearing of CDC when it is apparent that it was failures by TEXAS HOSPITAL and TEXAS HEALTH DEPT. and the state of TEXAS to have even an elementary system in place to contain infectious diseases, and especially one as serious ebola, even after President spoke publicly about the need for all leaders, here and around the world to be alert and prepared to contain ebola, in August and September?

CDC protocols didn't expose those nurses - Texas's refusal to take infectious diseases seriously did. You can't stick to that reality because you are dug in to blaming a federal agency for the failures of a corporate entity.

I guess you blamed WH when West, Texas blew up, too?

[jwirr]

37. To take into account states like Texas that ignore them.

[blm]

60. Now THAT would be plausible. ; )

.

[KittyWampus]

21. it was more than the hospital though. You never fault Republicans or Dallas or Management.

The fact you say the generic "hospital" and not management or CEO's is telling too.

And the CDC HAS ALREADY taken responsibility.

But they were in no way the primary "weak link".

And your insulting phrase about "pathological need" to defend feds is projection.

You are the one who focuses solely on one agent.

[B2G]

26. OK, I'll play along

Name one thing you think the CDC did wrong.

[blm]

29. Name one thing CDC did wrong that CAUSED those 2 nurses to be infected.

CDC didn't tell Texas hospital to be criminally unprepared to deal with ANY infectious diseases, especially this most extreme disease.

Texas government did what they always do - Ignore and/or deliberately defy any guidelines from this WH and federal agencies.

[B2G]

31. Well Obama isn't pleased

snips:

WASHINGTON — Beneath the calming reassurance that President Obama has repeatedly offered during the Ebola crisis, there is a deepening frustration, even anger, with how the government has handled key elements of the response.

Those frustrations spilled over when Mr. Obama convened his top aides in the Cabinet room after canceling his schedule on Wednesday. Medical officials were providing information that later turned out to be wrong. Guidance to local health teams was not adequate. It was unclear which Ebola patients belonged in which threat categories.

“It’s not tight,” a visibly angry Mr. Obama said of the response, according to people briefed on the meeting.

At the meeting on Wednesday, officials said, Mr. Obama placed much of the blame on the C.D.C., which provided shifting information about which threat category patients were in, and did not adequately train doctors and nurses at hospitals with Ebola cases on the proper protective procedures.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/18/us/amid-assurances-on-ebola-obama-is-said-to-seethe.html?_r=0#

[blm]

39. Your clip doesn't explain how CDC is to blame for spread when hospital is now

even admitting that they made the mistakes. They had to, though - their nurses had gone public with the level of neglect throughout that hospital at every level.

But then, that's not the narrative the GOP wants catapulted now, is it?

Nope - instead you want to take the wise actions of a CDC to tighten any weak points in its protocols as a sign that it is OK to push the lion's share of blame onto the WH and the CDC.

Gee - and your arguments here are all focused on attacking anyone who rejects the corpmedia's use of the same GOP narrative that certainly captured your energy.

[blm]

12. The elephantine share of mistakes were by Texas Hospital - other hospitals did fine

under CDC protocols in place, but, it was Texas hospital system that was woefully unprepared.

Face it - Texas's recent record is one of defying this WH and this current US government at every turn. They didn't WANT to heed ANY call from this WH.

As usual, the corporate media runs with the distorted narratives from the GOP and everyone else is stuck watching the distortions take root.

[etherealtruth]

10. From the beginning the 'hospital' reacted as though it had no protocols or procedures ....

.... for containing infectious disease .... Ebola or other.

this is basic healthcare 101 .... it is unconscionable that the hospital set the stage for this!

[blm]

13. The hospital's CEO needed his $5million a year, though, didn't he?

.

[etherealtruth]

15. .... a tiny fraction of that could have been spent

... to keep nurses and other direct care workers safe.


Reading through the complaints of the nurses, it seems to me that the administrative response to this was very clearly negligent

[B2G]

16. There is noting 'basic healthcare 101' about dealing with ebola.

Nothing.

[etherealtruth]

17. BASIC infection control and isoltaion procedurtes were not instittued

I have been wondering what your education and experience with this is? It may give more insight into your posts.


Disputing that basic infection control and isolation practices (not followed in the beginning , as outlined by the nursing staff public complaints) may have made a difference, is an odd position to take.

[B2G]

20. I am not saying it may not have made a difference

I am saying it probably wouldn't have been enough.

[etherealtruth]

28. Had a patient with suspected ebola

...been immediately isolated and BASIC infection control and isolation procedures been instituted immediately ....significantly fewer people would have suffered potential exposures ..... had the nurses providing direct care had "spotters" and supervision the potential of inadvertent exposure would have been diminished ....

I tend to believe and agree with the nurses at the hospital:

"I can no longer defend my hospital at all," Aguirre said. "I watched them violate basic principles of nursing care, of medical care."

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/nurse-at-texas-health-presbyterian-speaks-about-ebola-crisis-2014-10#ixzz3GhTGoL9E

[blm]

23. You missed the point entirely. Perhaps on purpose, perhaps not.

If the Texas Health Dept and Texas hospital was not even alert and prepared for other serious infectious diseases, and refused to be alert and prepared for ebola after WH expressed need in August and September, then why isn't that a focus in this overall story?

The CDC mistakes were minor and did NOT generate the spread of the infection - they were overblown in a calculated effort to protect the preferred narrative the corporate media was running with - blame the WH.

[KittyWampus]

24. There are a few DU'ers who constantly "miss the point" entirely on this issue.

I don't know why.

[LawDeeDah]

59. I know why

[kestrel91316]

48. Oh yes there is. Basic sanitation is BASIC and it applies to all pathogens, many of which cause

devastating disease. Ebola isn't some special exception that needs a lot of extra knowledge to deal with. It just requires more fastidiousness.

[riverwalker]

34. All hospitals notified late July

of the potential threat, and has been receiving health alerts on Ebola from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention since late July.

[blm]

41. Thanks for adding that. I was going with Obama's public statements, but, I should

have included July for hospitals across the nation being told by CDC to be prepared.

[Voice for Peace]

38. You pose a very good question & I hope the answer to it shows up.

[Dawson Leery]

40. The Texas department of health was not interested

in dealing with this problem, even though they were given multiple warnings back in the summer.

Remember the last time a Texan was given multiple warnings during the summer?

[Voice for Peace]

43. It's everybody's fault, why do these discussions always devolve into eitherorarguments?

CDC should have done better. The hospital should have done
better. The nurses might have done better just on survival
instinct. Obama might have done better. No learning curves,
unpreparedness, allowed; everything has to be somebody's
fault.

But this:
The other aspect to this event still left unscrutinized is the Texas Health Department - Did they deliberately ignore Obama's August and September call to all leaders here and abroad to be alert and prepared to contain any possible case of Ebola because of the culture of hatred towards any federal government guidelines and to President Obama that Rick Perry and Republican leaders have fostered continuously in recent years?

Any idea how to follow up on this question? Or know of anyone who is?

[blm]

45. THANK YOU! That was the whole point to the thread.

The hospital's public apology for its mistakes was an important admission, however, there may be a more dangerous scenario playing out for this nation via the disdain for and defiance of federal government from Republican governors and legislatures and all the agencies under their control, that is not getting any focused attention - certainly not from corporate media.

If hospitals acrodd the country were told in July to be on alert and prepared to contain ebola virus, and everyone was told in PUBLIC remarks by President Obama in August and September, then how can any hospital explain why they refused to act?

[Voice for Peace]

46. yes, I hope this gets examined. Just watched the smarmy segment with Priebus

regarding whether or not Republican cuts kill. Republican attitudes
are, across the board, irresponsible, founded in dishonesty.

[haele]

49. Duncan's fiancee and her relatives (one a nurse) were more aware and competent than that hospital.

They reacted to the situation by quarantining him, his effects, and attempting to get him health care as soon as he started showing symptoms - and how many people living in those close quarters for four days with him made it through quarantine without getting Ebola. They didn't just "assume he had the flu" - while the hospital dithered and ignored suggested protocols just because "someone without health insurance came in" even though he was obviously seriously sick and had traveled from a country where there was a known epidemic that presented like a bad flu going on.

This summer, my husband had a serious flu that kept him from breathing at night; I took him into the emergency room and they kept him in a separate room where access to him could be controlled, drew blood, and followed basic infectious disease protocol while they had him there - even though it was just the flu.
We have a large immigrant and refugee community here, and yes, during triage, the third question on their checklist was if he had been traveling to foreign countries or had contact with someone who had been traveling to a foreign country. They didn't get down to his insurance status until question 7.
As for intake having to go in and tell the doctors and nurses - "Hey, this sick guy had just come from Liberia, where there's Malaria and Ebola" - that's totally unsat.
All that info should have been electronically entered in the chart, and as soon as he was assigned a bed or a room, that information should have been available to all the staff before they started treating him, just as was the procedure for my husband back in the beginning of August.
I would bet money that what the Dallas hospital staff "saw" there on September 25th was some sick guy off the street who looked poor and didn't have insurance coverage and would probably cost the hospital more to treat properly than they could ever recover from him, so they didn't care.

It's a bottom-line/crunch the numbers/ P/E ratiorisk assessments attitude that those oh-so-efficient private hospitals and their shareholders require. They can't afford to adaquately treat everyone, so it's best just to treat the people who are functional enough to have a job or their own insurance. You know, the people that matter...

Y'know I also noticed that our local major hospital had updated at least three of their emergency rooms into isolated "clean rooms" with a changing area for suits even then. Our city is just a bit smaller than Dallas/Fort Worth, and we are prepared for infectious diseases.

Haele

[blm]

51. The decision for Texas Hospital to ignore warnings in July, Aug, and Sept came from somewhere.

It sure didn't come from the CDC.

[FSogol]

50. K & R. n/t

[Sunlei]

52. Many mistakes, in many hospital departments.Including vacation day 'comp-time' for Ebola caregivers?

Mr. Duncans' family did a better job than this Texas hospital.

[Tweedy]

54. Forgetting the battle that raged here for years

We listened for years to various screams that the federal government had no constitutional right to regulate health care in our 50 states. People still simultaneously believe the ACA is unconstitutional and the CDC failed to make a Texas hospital do its job. The CDC cannot force any hospital to do anything, or accept help.

[blm]

57. How soon people forget what the GOP was screaming for years and

now quickly turn around and blame federal government for THEIR local failures.

The corporate media lets them do it and get away with it. Hell....they join in and help them.

[Tweedy]

58. It is bizarre

Our media seem to need a few courses in federalism and a memory test.

[ucrdem]

55. Perhaps you have already observed that in DallasTexas human life is cheap

meaning, hmm . . .