Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins Hospital is in the midst of a construction project to build an isolation unit designed to treat patients with Ebola and other highly infectious diseases, according to a report from The Baltimore Sun.
The isolation unit is almost completed, and when it is, Johns Hopkins Hospital will join the ranks of just four other U.S. hospitals with a specialized biocontainment unit, according to the report. The other hospitals are Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Rocky Mountain Laboratory in Hamilton, Mont., and the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in Bethesda, Md., which is currently treating an Ebola patient.
The Johns Hopkins unit was designed after visiting the existing units at NIH and Emory, and officials asked leaders there what they would change about the units if they could, according to the report. One of the improvements is an autoclave waste management system, which allows the hospital to contain hazardous waste instead of shipping it somewhere else for disposal.
About 100 nurses and physicians have been trained to work in the new unit, according to the Baltimore Sun.