“People hear about flu symptoms, they’re not paying attention, they haven’t been near anybody with Ebola or in an Ebola country, they haven’t had fluid contact, they’re just nervous, so they show up,” said Arthur Caplan, PhD, a medical ethics expert at New York University Langone Medical Center, in the report.
Ebola is certainly top of mind, with an 800 percent increase in Ebola-related searches on WebMD since the first U.S. case of the disease was confirmed. While patient zero was identified in Dallas, because the public may not be educated or informed about Ebola transmission, panic and ED visits are possible anywhere across the country, according to the report.
More articles on capacity management:
Civil Rights Commission calls for tools to fight capacity-driven patient dumping
Mountain States Health Alliance announces ED expansion
21 statistics on the outpatient utilization shift
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