Are Emergency Departments Prepared for Potentially Infectious Diseases?

To assess preparedness for the ability to care for patients with potentially severe infectious diseases, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention performed 95 unannounced “mystery drills” (staged to simulate measles or Middle East respiratory syndrome) in 49 emergency departments (EDs) in New York City in 2015–2016. Outcome measures were compliance with standard infection control measures (e.g., hand hygiene, appropriate use of personal protective equipment); association between screening interventions (e.g., travel screening) and use of infection control measures; and time from patient entry to triage, wearing a mask, and isolation. EDs “passed” the exercise if the test patient was identified as high risk for an infectious respirator…