The nurses alleged that:
- Duncan was kept in a non-isolated area of the emergency department for several hours, potentially exposing up to seven other patients to Ebola;
- Patients who may have been exposed to Duncan were kept in isolation only for a day before being moved to areas where there were other patients;
- Nurses treating Duncan were also caring for other patients in the hospital;
- Preparation for Ebola at the hospital amounted to little more than an optional seminar for staff;
- In the face of constantly shifting guidelines, nurses were allowed to follow whichever ones they chose.
“There was no advance preparedness on what to do with the patient, there was no protocol, there was no system,” Burger said.
Even today, Burger said, some hospital staff at the Dallas hospital do not have proper equipment to handle the outbreak.
“Hospital managers have assured nurses that proper equipment has been ordered but it has not arrived yet,” she said.
