Texas Children's Hospital to Open Special Isolation Unit

The unit, which will be built on the West Campus at a cost of approximately USD 16 million, is intended specifically for children with highly contagious infectious diseases, such as pandemic influenza, Enterovirus D68, Ebola, and many others, and is anticipated to have capacity for eight patients, all in private rooms. The special isolation unit, which will be operational within nine months, will thus become the fifth specialized biocontainment unit in the entire United States equipped and staffed to care for patients with contagious infectious diseases.

The new special isolation unit will incorporate the latest scientific and technological approaches to biocontainment, including negative air pressure, laminar air flow, high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filtration, separate ventilation, anterooms, biosafety cabinets, special security access, autoclaves, and incinerators. There will be two levels of protection from airborne particles, as well as a comprehensive waste management plan, among other safety features. A point-of-care (POC) biosafety level 3 laboratory will enable the care team to monitor the progress of patients and perform rapid detection methods to identify unusual pathogens.

The specialized unit will be led by Gordon Schutze, MD, who will serve as medical director, and Judith Campbell, MD, and Amy Arrington, MD, who will be the unit's associate medical directors. It will be staffed by an elite team of experienced critical care and infectious disease nurses and physicians, all of whom will have successfully completed an intensive advanced certification course and practicum in infection control, hospital epidemiology, and management of infectious diseases in the critical care setting. The staff will maintain their certification through participation in ongoing educational activities.

“We will build a state-of-the-art isolation unit designed and staffed to provide the highest quality care and treatment for infants and children with serious or life-threatening infectious diseases of public health significance, always with the greatest possible margin of safety,” said Mark Kline, MD, physician-in-chief at Texas Children's and chair of the Department of Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine (Houston, TX, USA). “We are working with the CDC to design, build, equip and staff this unit. We believe this will be an indispensable resource to our local community, Texas, and the nation.”

Texas Children's has also been designated by the State of Texas as a pediatric Ebola treatment center following a recent visit from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC; Atlanta, GA, USA). As part of the hospital's preparation, specific protocols were developed outlining steps staff would take if and when a patient with Ebola symptoms arrived, and the specific areas and units responsible for care. The health care workers in those areas receive intense, ongoing training and simulation to help them prepare.

Related Links:
Texas Children's Hospital
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention