How prepared are our hospitals for the spread of coronavirus?

As hospitals and other medical facilities continue to gear up to respond to coronavirus in Washington, it’s had many asking just how prepared they are.

Dr. Celine Gounder, an infectious disease specialist and epidemiologist, spoke with KIRO Radio’s Gee and Ursula Show. She believes the outbreak is now a pandemic by definition, and that we should be preparing for its spread accordingly.

That being said, she also stressed the need for people not to panic.

“Yes, this is a pandemic, but I would also emphasize pandemic does not mean panic,” she noted. “Pandemic means you need policies, procedures, protocols. And you need to practice on each of those things.”

Hospitals with special pathogen units, which includes Providence in Seattle, are equipped to handle a pandemic like this, Gounder said, but it will be much more strain on the local hospitals and health care workers.

“We really need to think carefully about how we make sure we’re protecting our health care workers,” she detailed. “Because otherwise, it could result in big disruptions to our ability to care for patients, and not just patients with coronavirus.”

Protecting health care workers isn’t always easy — or something that hospitals have the resources to do — according to Pro Publica’s Marshall Allen.

“(Coronavirus patients) have to be isolated, and then the caregivers have to wear protective gear, like goggles and gloves and gowns and masks,” Allen told Seattle’s Morning News. “Anybody who goes into those rooms would also have to wear the same type of gear — it’s a real hassle.”

That hassle has had many hospitals struggling to contain infections within their walls.

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Pro Publica looked at a subset of 55 hospitals across the U.S. that were Ebola treatment centers during the last outbreak between 2014 and 2016. Even assuming that those facilities would presumably be “more up to speed on their infection prevention,” it was found that over the last five years, over half had at least one infection control violation. Roughly one in five had four or more violations, totaling over 100 overall.

“Infection control standards in hospitals have been so sloppy for so many years, that it does call into question whether or not hospitals are going be able to follow proper protocol with this particular crisis,” warned Allen.

Listen to the Gee and Ursula Show weekday mornings from 9 a.m. – 12 p.m. on KIRO Radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.