It costs approximately $30,000 a day to treat a single Ebola patient, and Omaha-based Nebraska Medical Center spent about $1.16 million treating the first two patients sent to the hospital with the virus, according to an NBC News report.
The cost to treat an Ebola patient can vary based on the severity of the patient's condition, but there are always indirect costs associated with the treatment. For instance, when a hospital treats a patient with Ebola, the hospital has to take other beds in the patient's ward out of service. The direct and indirect expenses make the cost of treating an Ebola patient far greater than other intensive care unit patients, according to the report.
Although it is still unclear who will pay the bills of the Ebola patients treated at Nebraska Medical Center, University of Nebraska Chancellor Jeffrey Gold, MD, believes the federal government should, since the government directed the patients to Nebraska Medical Center, according to the report.
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