Dallas Nurse Infected With Ebola to Be Transferred to NIH

[Tweedy]

25. Hospitals need to be able to deal with outbreaks

Rural hospitals have always been unique, and generally need subsidies to function properly. Here is the critical point: if we were hit with an epidemic, people will need care at rural hospitals. Epidemics don't care about man made boundaries. We used to understand this; these days with the drive to cut all and often, combined with our long reign of health, we seem to have lost comprehension of the need to maintain the public welfare by ensuring adequate beds and adequate care everywhere. Hopefully, this will be a wake up call. Right now, the focus on the cdc, rather than the unprepared hospital does not bode well for our future. We also need to invest in NIH to try and stay ahead of the bugs out there. Yet, not preparing for the worst case scenario is a dangerous gamble. Imagine something horrible happens, hospital beds are full in every city, do you really want to write off your close rural hospital?