Despite media reports claiming otherwise, Nebraska Medicine representatives issued a press release indicating that the hospital is not currently expecting to receive and treat a third Ebola patient.
"As with previous patients we’ve treated here in recent months, per State Department regulations, we would only have confirmation when a plane is en route with a patient aboard," said the hospital in a statement. "This is not the case right now."
However, hospital staff are in a "state of readiness" to treat Ebola patients if necessary, the statement said.
Nebraska Medicine, which is in Omaha, Nebraska, is one of only four hospitals in the U.S. that has a biocontainment unit built to receive and treat patients with infectious diseases and victims of bioterrorism. While it has the largest biocontainment unit of the four, Nebraska Medicine can only treat up to three Ebola patients at a time, said nursing director Shelly Schwedhelm, MSN, RN during an October press conference. The facility is limited by the pace at which they can sterilize materials with a special machine called an autoclave, which blasts objects with high-pressure steam.
Dr. Rick Sacra and NBC cameraman Ashoka Mukpo were both treated successfully at Nebraska Medicine after contracting Ebola.
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