Problem
Scenario: You work in hospital epidemiology or infection prevention at a hospital in downtown Los Angeles. The emergency room at your hospital is chronically overcrowded, and patients often sit on gurneys in the hallways until a bed is available. You just learned that a patient who has tuberculosis has been in the ER for the last four hours rather than in an isolation room, and he has been in the hallway violently coughing. What immediate steps should you take to prevent tuberculosis becoming an HAI at your facility? What could be done in the future to prevent this situation from occurring? What other information would be helpful as you make decisions in this scenario?