California health officials prepare for potential Ebola case

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KGO) -- The California Department of Public Health says it has contacted every hospital in the state to help them prepare for a potential Ebola case.

There are no confirmed or suspected cases in California. And we want it to remain that way. The message on Wednesday from state officials to the hospitals -- have a plan and test a plan.

The top state health department officials say their understanding of the virus is rapidly evolving.

"We're in the midst of the largest epidemic of Ebola in history," said Ron Chapman with the California Department of Public Health.

The cases in Dallas give them concern, but they believe the risk to the general public in California is extremely low and they have reached out to every hospital in the state.

"It requires developing a plan, it requires training, it requires repeat training, it requires training in different parts of the hospital, thinking about what happens if we need to send this patient for an x-ray, what happens if this patient needs dialysis?" said James P. Watt, MD, MPH, Chief of the Division of Communicable Disease Control.

On Tuesday, the chair of the state Assembly Health Committee, a doctor himself, said he had been waiting for days for information on the deadly virus.

"I have not yet gotten a formal reply from the Department of Public Health, yet," said Assemblyman Richard Pan, D-Sacramento.

On Wednesday, state health officials disclosed more of their strategy and said they believe the majority of California's hospitals could handle it if an Ebola patient walked into their emergency room.

"We developed a scenario that describes a hypothetical patient and it has a long checklist of all the different components of preparedness that hospitals should do," Watt said.

They are also working to select a few super hospitals.

"Hospitals that may be better prepared than others so that we can maximize those hospitals' that have good capabilities that we know can actually handle Ebola patients," said Gil Chavez, MD, MPH.

They would not provide names or say if any Bay Area hospitals are on that list.

"In the next few days rolling out announcements of hospitals around the state," Chapman said.

For full coverage on the Ebola virus, click here.