Denver Health is examining its response time for alerting the public about deadly infectious disease cases after a patient was admitted to the facility July 29 with a potential Ebola diagnosis, the Denver Post reports.
Test results confirmed that the patient did not have the Ebola virus, but it took seven hours for the facility to notify the public.
Denver Health spokesperson Jennifer Hillman attributed the delay in issuing an alert to coordinating with other agencies to assess the situation and presenting information in a media release in such a way as not to cause a panic.
"If I had to look back on it now, I would have liked to have sent the press release out a little earlier," Ms. Hillmann, told the Post.
The organization has started conducting debriefings to discuss how it handled the potential Ebola case.
"We followed our established protocols, and all Denver Health staff responded efficiently and effectively; however, we use every opportunity we can to learn and improve," Ms. Hillmann said in a prepared statement.
The Democratic Republic of Congo experienced an Ebola outbreak from May 8 until July 24 that killed 33 people. Days after the World Health Organization declared the outbreak over, the Congo declared a new outbreak. The patient at Denver Health has just returned from a medical mission to the Congo, according to the Post.
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