Hospital's bioterrorism isolation unit in use for TB patients
Los Angeles Times, August 21, 2012
When a chest X-ray at a Santa Monica health center revealed a shadow in his lungs, Matthew Kennedy was quickly transferred to a highly specialized tuberculosis ward 25 miles across the county at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center in Sylmar. Rare is normal for the Olive View unit, one of only four such centers in the nation specialized in tuberculosis. The high-tech isolation unit opened last August as part of a $53-million federally funded renovation of the public hospital's emergency room to equip it for a bioterrorism attack. For now, it serves highly infectious or difficult-to-treat tuberculosis patients, reflecting positive and negative crosscurrents in TB medicine: Infections are down dramatically but getting more complicated.
Most Viewed
Most Emailed
- $6.4B Henry Ford, Beaumont Merger Failed on Cultural Hurdles
- How Chargemaster Data May Affect Hospital Revenue
- House Lawmakers Grill CMS Over Health Exchange Navigators
- Fortunately, Angelina Jolie Isn't On Medicare
- Primary Care Docs Average More Hospital Revenue Than Specialists
- ED Physicians Key to Half of Hospital Admissions
- Don't Let Nurses Sink Your Bottom Line
- Insurer's App Aims to Lower Healthcare Costs, Securely
- 69% of Employers Plan to Offer Healthcare Coverage After 2014
- Uncompensated Care Faces a Double Hit in Some States
