Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome

Introduction:

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a contagious respiratory disease. People affected by SARS first develop a fever, followed by respiratory symptoms, such as cough, shortness of breath or difficulty in breathing. Other signs of SARS include muscle aches, headaches, sore throats and diarrhea. Overtime these symptoms can become increasingly severe which can be life threatening. In this case, patient may require oxygen support and mechanical help to breath.

 The first case of SARS in Canada was identified in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. A Toronto based doctor was examining a sick family which had recently returned from Hong Kong, China. Transmission of SARS to other resulted in an outbreak, which subsequently resulted in the death of a nurse and her husband. She caught the disease while working in the hospital with the infected patients. The outspread of the disease made the government authorities, hospitals and community of Hamilton very nervous. The media was on high alert and any development related to SARS was treated as a headline.

On March 27, 2003, Ontario Health Minister Tony Clement declared a national emergency. Quarantine was implemented in hospitals, also several people had to undergo quarantine at their homes. All health care institution were instructed by the health ministry to take necessary precautionary measure in an effort to contain the disease. A crisis management team was created at McMaster University Medical Center (MUMC) which was responsible to closely monitor the development, provide updates and direction to the community of Hamilton regarding the disease.

SARS is a new disease and most of its characteristic are unknown and it is going to take time to develop diagnostic and curative measures.

The section ahead provides a crisis communication strategy and a crisis communication plan for the management of MUMC.

CRISIS MANAGEMENT AND COMMUNICATION STRATEGY

Task Force:

The hospital should form a task force with full authority to take measures to contain the outbreak of this disease.

Can be further elaborated.

Strategy to restrict exposure of Infected Patients:

Since SARS is a contagious disease it is extremely important to contain the exposure of infected individuals to others. The first step towards isolating the infected patients is to designate a special ward only for SARS infected patients and restrict access to that ward for non-medical outsiders.

The capacity of this ward would be of 30 beds. All SARS infected patients will be transferred to this ward for treatment. It would be an isolation area where only assigned healthcare worker would be allowed to visit for examining the condition of the SARS infected patients. No external visitor will be allowed near the assigned area. Security personnel will be assigned to make sure only healthcare workers are allowed to visit the area. Each employee working has to wear assigned protective gear while working the room. In addition, before entering the SARS ward, health care worker has to visit the preventive measure room. Here the employee working will be reminded about the protection procedure to be adhered to. After working in the ward employees will visit examination area, where assigned specialist will examine if the employee has been infected he will admitted to the SARS wards.

Discuss Pros and CONS of separate ward

Hospital’s Credibility:

The death of a nurse and her husband has put the credibility of the hospital under scrutiny as this incidence indicates the lack of preemptive screening systems and lack of sense of responsibility. Ideally the hospital should have instituted a screening procedure for medical staff as soon as it diagnosed the first patient and should have quarantined those who were in close proximity to the infected patient. Now the incidence has posed the question to the hospital administration as to whether they should allow outpatient and external visitors to visit the hospital or to shut it down to prevent the chance of spread.

Hospital authorities need to outline preventive measure and procedure employees need to observe before and after examining the SARS infected patients.

Discuss Pros and CONS of shutting down outpatient services

Screening System for Hospital’s Employees:

The hospital has implemented a three parts questionnaire procedure where hospital’s staff has to report any recently developed medical condition, whether they have been in close contact with somebody infected with SARS and whether they have visited any other hospital during this medical emergency period.  

This procedure is adequate to capture vital information but it is not highly effective to prevent the members of hospital staff from becoming potential carriers of this virus. This is because staff members might not respond to the effects of virus between successive surveys and still might end up transferring it to patients or outsiders. A robust system needs to be implemented in which a designated team of doctors and support staff will treat the infected patients and it should be made mandatory for this designated team to wear the protective gear at all times during their duty hours.

...