Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, where Thomas Duncan was diagnosed with Ebola, has seen a major decline in revenue. The hospital has reported a 50% drop in ER visits, and a 20% drop in daily patient census.
Couple that with a wave of negative reviews coming in, and even full page apologies may not be enough to survive. Earlier reports called Texas Health Presbyterian a ghost town.
Look, whichever hospital was first to receive an Ebola patient was screwed. The CDC had been telling everyone that Ebola wasn’t likely to come here, and even though hospitals have been working on Ebola preparedness for months, the urgency wasn’t there until it was on our shores.
That doesn’t excuse sending Duncan home the first time, but I can understand missing it.
And, the two nurses who caught Ebola from Duncan were apparently following CDC guidelines. Those guidelines have since been revised by the increasingly incompetent-appearing CDC.
If I or a family member were sick or injured in Dallas, I’d probably want to bypass Texas Health for the next available hospital. I can’t question others who do so.
But, if I had been potentially exposed to Ebola, and started to show worrying symptoms, I’d go there in a New York minute. They’ve learned a lot in the four weeks since Duncan walked in their door. If I’m not near a biocontainment facility, I’d like to go somewhere that’s seen the disease before.
Still, the challenges Texas Health faces are big. But then, so is their parent company, which provides deep pockets and a chance at survival.
The apology was a good start. So are articles that show how they’re improving their processes.
I’d like to see some of this happening at a national level as well. Perhaps invite one of the national news television shows in to examine what they’re doing.
At this point, Texas Health has no good will to trade on. Openness and honesty is the only way they’re going to being rebuilding it.