13 hospitals designated to treat Ebola, deadly pathogens

 Thirteen health systems across the country are federally designated Regional Emerging Special Pathogen Treatment Centers, meaning they are equipped and trained to treat patients with Ebola and other high-consequence pathogens.

The centers are drawing renewed attention as the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo grows to more than 600 suspected cases, including one American physician diagnosed with the virus and six others with potential exposure.

The network traces its origins to the 2014 West African Ebola outbreak, the largest in history, which exposed significant gaps in the country’s capacity to isolate and treat patients with highly infectious diseases. Three U.S. hospitals — Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha and NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue in New York City — treated patients with Ebola during the outbreak and developed protocols that laid the groundwork for a nationwide framework. 

In 2015, HHS designated these three hospitals and six others as Regional Ebola and Special Pathogen Treatment Centers. Four other hospitals have received the designation since then.

HHS also launched the National Ebola Training and Education Center in 2015 — led by Emory, UNMC and NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue — to help coordinate training and education across the nine centers.

In 2019, the centers were redesignated as Regional Emerging Special Pathogen Treatment Centers, expanding their scope beyond Ebola to all high-consequence infectious diseases. The training consortium became the National Emerging Special Pathogens Training and Education Center. HHS also tasked the center with developing the National Special Pathogen System, a tiered national framework to coordinate special pathogen response across U.S. healthcare. 

Unlike standard hospitals, RESPTCs maintain dedicated biocontainment units with specialized negative-pressure isolation rooms, trained staff who conduct drills for special pathogen scenarios year-round and waste management systems designed for the most dangerous infectious materials. They serve as the definitive care sites within their regions, meaning any hospital that identifies a suspected special pathogen patient — whether a domestic case or a medical evacuation from abroad — can transfer that patient to the nearest RESPTC. They also provide no-cost training and technical assistance to other hospitals across their regions.

Below are the 13 hospitals and health systems designated as RESPTCs.

2015 designees:
Denver Health 
Emory University Hospital 
Johns Hopkins Hospital (Baltimore)
Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston)
NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue
Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center & Children’s Hospital (Spokane, Wash.) 
University of Minnesota Medical Center (Minneapolis)
University of Nebraska Medical Center (Omaha)
University of Texas Medical Branch (Galveston)

2016:
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center (Los Angeles)

2022:
Corewell Health (Grand Rapids, Mich.)
MedStar Washington Hospital Center (Washington, D.C.) 
UNC Hospitals (Chapel Hill, N.C.)

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/quality/public-health/13-hospitals-designated-to-treat-ebola-deadly-pathogens/