When a Dallas County sheriff's deputy who had entered the apartment of the first patient to die from Ebola in the U.S. started feeling ill himself, he didn't rush to the nearest hospital. He chose an urgent care clinic.
So did a man who recently traveled to West Africa and was complaining of flu-like symptoms, prompting the suburban Boston urgent care practice where he went to briefly shut down over the weekend.
The deadly virus' arrival in the U.S. has put the spotlight on weak spots in American hospitals, but those facilities are not the only ones who have suddenly found themselves on the front lines against Ebola.
Urgent-care clinics for many people have become de-facto emergency rooms. They are not, however, equipped like hospitals to treat serious illnesses, such as Ebola, nor do they have isolation units.
Clinics are urging potential patients to get checked for the highly contagious virus at a hospital.
Given the problems at the Texas hospital, where Thomas Eric Duncan died and two nurses have been diagnosed with the virus, an Ebola case could have posed even greater problems at a clinic or smaller hospital, experts say.
"That would be an even less controlled situation," said Dr. David Weber, an epidemiologist at the University of North Carolina's hospital. "The likelihood for that is so remote that they may never have thought about that."
Still, clinics are preparing staff in case someone with Ebola does walk in. They are distributing protective gear and quickly trying to get up to speed on the best protocols to teach their health providers.
Dr. William Gluckman of the Urgent Care Association of America, which represents more than 2,600 clinics, said the facilities want anyone who suspects they may have contracted Ebola to go to a hospital emergency department.
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