Emory to lead National Ebola Training and Education Center
Nurses Crystal Johnson and Jason Slabach practice donning and doffing personal protective equipment in Emory University Hopsital’s Serious Communicable Diseases Unit. Photography by Jack Kearse
Because of its experience in helping four patients recover from Ebola, Emory was named by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services to be lead coordinating center of the National Ebola Training and Education Center.
Emory will collaborate with the University of Nebraska Medical Center, the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (Bellevue Hospital), the HHS’s Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The center will support training of health care providers and facilities on strategies to manage Ebola virus and other emerging infectious diseases and will receive $12 million over the next five years.
"Based on the knowledge we have gained from caring for patients with Ebola virus disease, we will develop and teach best practices to other health care workers who could be faced with caring for similar patients in the future," says Bruce Ribner, medical director of Emory University Hospital’s Serious Communicable Diseases Unit. Ribner will be principal investigator of the center.
Since December 2014, Emory, the University of Nebraska, and the CDC have trained more than 460 health care workers from 87 health care systems on all aspects of Ebola infection control and patient care. Emory is part of a national network of 55 Ebola treatment centers.
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Extraordinary Ebola care
Emory University Hospital’s Serious Communicable Diseases Unit team received the National Patient Safety Foundation’s DAISY (Diseases Attacking the Immune System) Award for Extraordinary Nurses. Members of "Team Ebola" were selected for their care and successful treatment of four critically ill Ebola patients at Emory last summer and fall.
