I n the early months of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, meat processing facilities became among the largest epicenters of COVID-19 outbreaks in the United States (1). Declared a critical infrastructure industry in April 2020 (2), meat processing facilities are particularly vulnerable to COV-ID-19 because of the high density of workers required for operations, prolonged close contact of personnel on the production line, indoor work environments with compact cafeteria and locker room areas, and a workforce with diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds that make educational efforts more challenging (3). A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report found that, as of May 31, 2020, >16,000 workers in meat and poultry processing facilities in the United States had been diagnosed with COVID-19 and 86 had died (4); as of October 2020, those case counts and deaths had more than tripled (5). Meat processing facilities in Nebraska employ ≈26,000 workers (6). The fi rst COVID-19 illness among meat processing facility workers in Nebraska was identifi ed March 9, 2020. As of July 2020, cases had been reported among workers in 23 Nebraska meat processing facilities. The University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) and Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services partnered to mitigate COVID-19 risks in Nebraska among workers in this industry. Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services expanded case investigations and contact tracing teams and coordinated 2 mass testing events with participating meat processing facilities. UNMC created evidence-based guidelines for facilities (7) and assembled a team of infectious disease and infection prevention and control (IPC) experts to provide onsite and virtual technical assistance to facilities to evaluate gaps in IPC practices and provide facility-specifi c IPC recommendations. Local and state health departments conducted case investigations to collect information on demographics, employer, occupation, industry, illness descriptions, medical history, and outcomes among Nebraska meat processing workers. Moreover, although industry-specifi c guidelines for mitigating COVID-19 transmission in meat processing facilities have been issued by CDC and other public health
The National Ebola Training and Education Center (NETEC) was established in 2015 in response to the 2014-2016 Ebola virus disease outbreak in West Africa. The US Department of Health and Human Services office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sought to increase the competency of healthcare and public health workers, as well as the capability of healthcare facilities in the United States, to deliver safe, efficient, and effective care to patients infected with Ebola and other special pathogens nationwide. NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue, Emory University, and the University of Nebraska Medical Center/Nebraska Medicine were awarded this cooperative agreement, based in part on their experience in safely and successfully evaluating and treating patients with Ebola virus disease in the United States. In 2016, NETEC received a supplemental award to expand on 3 initial primary tasks: (1) develop metrics and conduct peer review assessments; (2) develop and provide educational materials, resources, and tools, including exercise design templates; (3) provide expert training and technical assistance; and, to add a fourth task, create a special pathogens clinical research network.
The current literature indicates that prompt identification and isolation of both common illnesses (eg, seasonal influenza) as well as highly hazardous communicable diseases (eg, coronavirus disease 2019 and Ebola virus disease) can mitigate exposures to and transmissions of these diseases in clinical settings. This article contributes to the finding that this practice improvement project led to a decrease in the number of infection control exposure investigations in the emergency department. Key implications for emergency nursing practice found in this article are that the availability of this electronic screening algorithm arms emergency nurses to identify promptly and isolate both at-risk patients with common illnesses and highly hazardous communicable diseases, thereby reducing subsequent exposure.
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