1. What disease control protocols in Scarborough Grace Hospital should have been followed to stop the spread of SARS I? 

Scarborough Grace Hospital should have controlled the spread of SARS if the facility had followed the disease control protocol. First, the hospital should have recommended the use of screening procedures. With the screening procures, the hospital would have targeted patients, employees, and visitors who were entering into the facility and also leaving. The approach is significant since it would have helped the management of the hospital to detect people who were infected and isolate them from the rest (Ahmad, Krumkamp & Reintjes, 2009). Second, the facility should have provided its employees with protective gears such as respiratory masks, gloves, and gowns to wear whenever they attend to patients. The full protective gears would have protected them from getting infected in case they attend to a patient who was already suffering from the severe acute respiratory syndrome. Third, Scarborough Grace Hospital should have canceled operations in the outpatient facilities to give room for the staff to manage the spread of the disease. Besides, the hospital should have made use of the specialized SARS department to handle patients suspected of having the disease. Fourth, citing Ahmad, Krumkamp and Reintjes (2009), communication plays a critical role in the operations of the organization. Therefore, the hospital should have communicated with the ministry of public health to lay down appropriate measures that would have assisted in detecting and mitigating the disease.

1. Is instituting a voluntary quarantine effective in preventing the spread of disease? Why or why not? 

Quarantine focuses on the incubation period of the suspected disease. Healthcare practitioners perform this process on individuals who are healthy and are suspected to have been exposed to the communicable disease (Possamai, 2006). Physicians believe that these people can be incubating the disease from people have not been infected. In this case, the use of voluntary quarantine is not effective in mitigating the spread of SARS. For instance, when people are given the opportunity to make a decision of whether they would like to be quarantined or not, yet the hospital suspects them of contacting the disease, will help in the spreading of the disease to others. According to Possamai (2006), the voluntary quarantine will allow people who have been in contact with those suffering from the contagious disease to transmit the disease to family members and colleagues at schools and other institutions. Therefore, it is clear that this approach will result in the spread of the disease instead of preventing. On the same note, when the healthcare facilities do not quarantine suspected individuals until the incubation period passes, the odds of innocent people being infected are high. The best approach to ensure that people are not affected is to subject the suspected individuals to mandatory separation, and this will help in controlling the spread of the disease to others.

References

Ahmad, A., Krumkamp, R., & Reintjes, R. (2009). Controlling SARS: a review on China’s response compared with other SARS‐affected countries. Tropical Medicine & International Health, 14(s1), 36-45.

Possamai, M. A. (2006). SARS and health worker safety: lessons for influenza pandemic planning and response. HealthcarePapers, 8(1), 18-28.

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