Kaiser Permanente Calls For Highest Honor and Best Treatment For Volunteers Returning From Fighting Ebola in West Africa

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Oct 26, 2014, 09:35 ET

OAKLAND, Calif., Oct. 26, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Kaiser Permanente today called upon public officials, public health experts and leaders in health care to join in helping ensure that Americans who volunteer to help stop the spread of the Ebola virus are treated with the gratitude and respect of a grateful nation.

The following statement was issued today by Patrick Courneya, MD, executive vice president and chief medical officer for Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and Health Plan, Inc.:

"The Ebola epidemic in West Africa is being fought by local health workers, family caregivers and volunteers from countries outside that devastated region. The only way to stop the virus from killing more, and spreading outside the region, is for these brave people to be successful. We all need them to be successful.

"As a nation, we have to find a way to enable health care professionals to participate in treating those infected with the Ebola virus, and to establish treatment facilities in West Africa, to stop the progression of the epidemic. That's the only way the epidemic will be contained, and the fight against this virus can be won.

"The volunteers who are going to West Africa have accepted the risk that the Ebola virus poses to them. We have the duty to protect and support them in their work. This means first and foremost we need to ensure they are well trained, and have the right protective gear, equipment and facilities they need. While it's a work in progress, that work is already underway.

"But it also means we need to ensure they are provided with safe travel to West Africa and home, comprehensive monitoring of their health upon their return and, if needed, rapid access to the best care available, should they demonstrate evidence of having contracted the disease.

"We call on public health authorities and public officials to align quickly around whether and how to sequester and monitor the health of returning volunteers, based on science and evidence, and put that in place consistently. Our request – and our commitment – is that our volunteers be treated under the best conditions that can be provided to them, with their physical safety, comfort and emotional wellbeing at the forefront of our concerns.

"America's volunteers fighting Ebola in West Africa deserve our highest praise for their choice to selflessly put themselves in harm's way to help others. They deserve a hero's welcome home, not fear and stigmatization."

Amy Compton Phillips, chief quality officer, The Permanente Federation, added the following foundation for this call of support:

"We have physicians, nurses and others right now serving or ready to volunteer in West Africa. We are intensely proud of the work they are doing and stand ready as an organization to support them and others from our organization who volunteer to do this critical work. It is with them in mind as well as all the others from across the country making the same decision that we make this call for compassionate, safe, and consistent support."

Our Shared Goals

Kaiser Permanente leadership has begun reaching out to U.S. government agencies and non-governmental organizations to quickly organize what's needed to meet the following goals:

Treat these courageous individuals honorably, and support them upon their return; recognize the personal risk they have taken in pursuit of the humanitarian goal of stopping a great public health crisis.
Ensure that these volunteers are provided safe, timely transport home to the U.S. We support the development of a more coherent transport, return and if necessary repatriation system. One solution may be to have the federal government (e.g., the Defense Department) manage the entire process. Another, which we are prepared to help lead, is to assemble a public-private partnership of hospitals, public health authorities and private sector logistics and hospitality companies to deliver on these objectives at the designated entry points in the U.S.
Ensure that we have robust systems in place to protect these volunteers' health care colleagues, patients, families, and friends, and to provide assurance that returning volunteers create no public health risk. Our shared goal should be to welcome our volunteers home safely, treat them honorably, and at the same time avoid any risk of Ebola virus exposure to anyone here in the U.S.
Provide vigilant and comprehensive monitoring of their health, upon their return, to protect both them and those they will care for after their return.
Should any of our volunteers contract the disease, provide them with immediate connection to the best treatment possible.
Ensure that the family and friends of our nation's volunteers also feel our gratitude and support and that nothing we do results in them being stigmatized or treated unfairly.
Remain vigilant to ensure that communication to health care workers and the public is based on science, and the best available evidence.

Some Steps Already Taken

All of the goals above already apply to health care workers serving in our facilities here in the U.S., who could be called upon in the future to treat patients who contract the disease. These caregivers will also deserve our deepest gratitude, and the most honored treatment possible.

Kaiser Permanente has also taken the following actions to make sure it is prepared to honor returning volunteers, treat them with gratitude, and ensure their work to help stop the Ebola epidemic in West Africa is strongly supported.

Kaiser Permanente already facilitates leave for staff volunteering and those subject to quarantine upon their return, and will continue to make sure our treatment of our volunteers meets the highest standards.
Kaiser Permanente also stands ready to care for any of our returning volunteers who contract the disease, while ensuring our staff, patients and communities are protected from the virus' spread. Kaiser Permanente has been and will continue working to ensure that its medical centers are prepared with the recommended personal protective equipment needed to protect caregivers from exposure to the virus, and that staff are trained in how to use this equipment and how to treat any future patient with Ebola Virus Disease who seeks our care.
Kaiser Permanente has donated $1 million for West Africa Ebola relief to support direct medical care and safe clinical treatment practices. This includes a $500,000 charitable donation to Doctors Without Borders/ Medecins Sans Frontieres, to support the treatment and isolation of patients and training of local and volunteer health workers in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea. The organization has mobilized hemorrhagic fever experts and experienced medical and logistical staff, many of whom have returned multiple times to the region in recent months. Kaiser Permanente also donated $500,000 to the International Medical Corps to support the creation and operation of two roving teams of trainers – in Sierra Leone and Liberia – to rapidly expand the number of trained health care workers equipped to treat Ebola patients and help ensure the safety of patients, health workers, and Ebola Treatment Unit staff. Teams will quickly help relieve the existing limits on training capacity by training local health care workers in both West African countries.

About Kaiser Permanente
Kaiser Permanente is committed to helping shape the future of health care. We are recognized as one of America's leading health care providers and not-for-profit health plans. Founded in 1945, our mission is to provide high-quality, affordable health care services and to improve the health of our members and the communities we serve. We currently serve approximately 9.5 million members in eight states and the District of Columbia. Care for members and patients is focused on their total health and guided by their personal physicians, specialists and team of caregivers. Our expert and caring medical teams are empowered and supported by industry-leading technology advances and tools for health promotion, disease prevention, state-of-the-art care delivery and world-class chronic disease management. Kaiser Permanente is dedicated to care innovations, clinical research, health education and the support of community health. For more information, go to: kp.org/share.

Contact:
Ravi Poorsina
510-421-0557
[email protected]

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