The immediate step to take where one discovers that there has been a patient infected with TB in the emergency room and along the clouded facility hallway is to give those who have been in the same room and along the hall BCG vaccine. The persons might have inhaled the germs, and therefore, the vaccine will help to prevent them from becoming infected. The next step is to isolate that person in a different room to avoid further exospore of the germs to other people who may be coming (Tshitangano, 2014). Also, the windows and doors should be opened immediately to allow the contaminated air to flow out.

One of the strategies to prevent such a case is to have a policy on immediate detection, isolation, and treatment of such cases and educate the staff on the importance of following the policy. The doctor at the ER could have taken caution if there were strict policies (Allyn & Brewer, 2018). Another move is to ensure that there is an isolation room for patients diagnosed with TB and that they are taken there immediately the hospital receives them. Also, the procedure taken to treat such patients should be made simple to manage and discharge them before they spread the germs to others.

Additional information essential when making the above decision is on whether the hospital has enough medical staff and laboratory test kits for emergency attendance of patients with TB. Such information will help in deciding whether making the treatment procedure simple will solve such situations. Another information is on whether the doctors have preventive face masks and N95 respirators to make them able to attend to such patients and that the isolation rooms have ventilation (Tshitangano, 2014). Such information guides to know whether the hospital is ready for such patients to continue receiving them.

References

Tshitangano, T. G. (2014). The practices of isolating tuberculosis infectious patients at hospitals of Vhembe district, Limpopo Province. African journal of primary health care & family medicine, 6(1), 1-7.

Allyn, P. & Brewer T. (2018). Guide to infection control in the hospital chapter 26: Tuberculosis. Retrieved from https://www.isid.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/ISID_InfectionGuide_Chapter26.pdf