Saturday - February 07, 2015

IMBY, Ebola

You’ve heard of “NIMBY” the acronym for Not In My Backyard. I suppose that there ought to be an IMBY as well, but I’m not certain that the shorter abbreviation reflect a desire to have something close by, or just the awareness of it. In My Back Yard.

From there I get to today’s post. Ebola. Remember Ebola? Remember how we were all gonna die, and were expecting massive outbreaks of the disease right here, spurred on by what seemed like lackadaisical government policies and a certain pResident’s apparent desire to import as many cases of it as he could?

Yeah, me too. Then it simply fell off the radar. Clunk. And ceased to be a news item overnight. Gone. Not that the plague is over in Africa, oh no. It’ still a hell hole with major outbreaks in at least 3 zones, but the crest of the primary wave may have been reached, maybe, and new case reports are down to “merely" 400 new cases this year, pushing the overall number of current cases to about 21,000 for the whole area.




Well, what if we had had a major outbreak here? Did you ever wonder where all those people would go? Once their numbers got bigger than a handful, they couldn’t go into the existing hospital situation. It would be overwhelming and uncontrollable. So some sort of isolation facilities would be needed, and they’d be needed right away.

Lucky me, the good government workers of our state’s Emergency Services division were on top of things. And they fired up a two stage plan, a small facility and a big one. And got them ready. And while they didn’t exactly hide this information, somehow it just didn’t catch in the news. So it comes as a bit of a shock to find out now that the Stage Two plan used Fort Monmouth, a mothballed military installation on an isthmus in the back bays behind the Jersey shore ("down the shore” as they say here). And the Stage One facility was the hospital wing at Hagedorn Psychiatric, another mothballed albatross around the State’s neck that was finally closed just two years ago. Hagedorn started out as a 19th Century tuberculosis sanatorium up on the top of Kipp’s Mountain, and most of the place has fallen into such mouldering disrepair that it’s a favorite spooky haunt of urban archaeologists and oddball magazines like Weird NJ. And the place is just over the next hill from where I live, just a hair over 4 miles away on the other side of the reservoir next to us. Surprise!

I’m not being critical here at all. They did the right thing in my opinion. And Hagedorn is as perfect a place as you could ask for, a square mile of property atop a rural mountain road, in one of the lower density populated areas of the state. With a full medical environment, limited road access, and a front lawn big enough to land helicopters in. It’s just a bit of surprise, because nobody knew. And of course it was a helluva expense, but what can you do?

Local officials complain they were left in dark on New Jersey Ebola quarantine center

[2/04/15] Local officials in central New Jersey are complaining they were left in the dark on plans to convert a shuttered military base into an Ebola quarantine center—and say they only found out about it when fire officials arrived for an inspection last week.

“Nobody was happy about this situation,” Eatontown Mayor Dennis Connelly told FoxNews.com.

Connelly says he had learned earlier that the military post, Fort Monmouth, could be used as a secondary quarantine site—the state already uses a psychiatric hospital in Hunterdon County—but only found out that the plan had moved forward last week.

The Asbury Park Press reported that the state Department of Human Services had been in contact with a select number of local officials regarding the plan for this center. However, they asked that the plans not be made public. Local officials complain there was never an opportunity for the community to discuss the matter and be part of the planning.
...

Fort Monmouth was closed as a military post in 2011. Shortly afterward, a committee—the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority (FMERA)—was created to assist in the economic transition of the surrounding towns. The committee assumed control of the base from the Army, with the power to lease and sell parts of the property. According to reports, FMERA recently leased a portion of Fort Monmouth for six months to the Department of Human Services to use as the Ebola quarantine center.

The local officials said in their statement that the lease, though, was “imposed” on the committee by Gov. Chris Christie’s government and “was not vetted at a public meeting or voted on by the entire Board.” [ Well, duh, it’s called “an emergency”, right? ]

While the state is being accused of keeping the plans close to the vest, dozens of other treatment centers already are operational across the country to handle Ebola and other outbreaks. There are 48 treatment centers and 20 quarantine centers, overseen by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Fort Monmouth was not previously among them.

There is a treatment center in your state, and a 50:50 chance you have a quarantine center too. Do you know where either one is?

[ 10/25/14 ] LEBANON TWP. - The state has designated the former Sen. Garrett W. Hagedorn Psychiatric Hospital here as a location where some Ebola patients could be quarantined, according to township Mayor Thomas McKee.

McKee said that he’s been told Hagedorn has recently been inspected and designated as a safe location for the purpose of quarantine.

“The state has plans in place,” the mayor said. He has questions about the plans and protocols and is reaching out to county and state health officials. “I don’t want to alarm people,” the mayor said, but, “We’re guarded, we’re cautious.”

Lebanon Township Fire Chief Edward Schaffer has been in contact with the state over its plans, the mayor said. Freeholder Robert Walton lives in Hampton, “almost within eyesight” of Hagedorn, which is on the opposite side of Route 31 from his home. “I am not alarmed,” Walton said.

“The state is making preparations for an Ebola outbreak, should that happen,” Walton said. He said Hunterdon County Health Officer and Epidemiologist Karen DeMarco have been briefed by state officials about that plan, which she shared with county Chief of Staff-Director of Public Safety George Wagner and Brayden Fahey, the Hunterdon’s coordinator of the Office of Emergency Management.

McKee said he hasn’t heard from county or state officials and is reaching out to them as well as state legislators.

Dawn Thomas, a spokesperson for the state Department of Health, said that for any patient requiring quarantine because of Ebola, the “preference is to quarantine individuals at home. If that is not possible, the Department of Human Services will find temporary housing for the individual.”

McKee said Hagedorn’s East Ward would be used for the facility’s patients. It has 16 rooms and patients would be kept secure and isolated within those rooms, he said.
...
Hagedorn was founded in 1907 as the state Sanatorium for Chest Diseases at Mount Kipp and shuttered in 1976. It was later designated as Hagedorn Gero-Psychiatric Hospital, and was closed amidst controversy in 2011. Its fate was sealed after a controversial decision that became final when Gov. Chris Christie signed the state budget. Closing the facility was expected to save $9 million and reduce New Jersey’s reliance on institutions.

The site is sprawled over a 600-acre campus and most of its buildings were mothballed. Part of the site now includes Veteran’s Haven North, a 100-bed, temporary home and training center for homeless veterans. It’s run by the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, but is hundreds of yards away from the site’s main buildings.closing the locations.”

Oh, and speaking of cost ... nice work if you can get it, and you can get it if you’re a cop.

[ 1/26/15 ] Ebola scare raised overtime for New Jersey police
Some New Jersey Human Services police officers earned nearly $53,000 in overtime in little more than three weeks finding a place to isolate potential Ebola patients and guarding the empty hospital.

Information obtained by NJ.com through the Open Public Records Act shows police logged 953 hours in October and November for “emergency preparedness related to the Ebola Virus Disease.”

Human Services spokeswoman says 908 hours were paid at time-and-a-half.

Most of the hours were spent guarding Hagedorn Psychiatric Hospital in Lebanon Township, where potential Ebola patients were to be quarantined. Officers worked around the clock to keep out trespassers and reporters. But the site was not needed for patients.

One road in, one road out, on a heavily forested mountain known to have a large bear population. A cop on either end, vegging out in his car. 24 hours a day coverage for 20 days. $50/hr to man the gatehouses. I dispute that $53,000 figure, but $4,000 per officer, pulling 4 hours OT per day, is within reach. But I have to wonder, given just how isolated the place already is, and how this was such a non-news news item ... I wonder what the patrol logs show? Did they ever have to chase anybody off? Did they even have anyone show up to be turned away? 

Posted by Drew458     on 02/07/2015 at 12:30 PM   
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