Philadelphia officials hold summit on Ebola preparedness

UNIVERSITY CITY (WPVI) -- Local officials held a summit Wednesday morning to determine how well the region is prepared for any possible Ebola cases.

We know mistakes were made in Dallas when Ebola victim Thomas Duncan was originally sent home despite having symptoms and recent travel to West Africa.

Two nurses were also infected while treating Duncan.

Congressman Chaka Fattah, Patrick Meehan, and Charlie Dent met with local hospital officials and public health experts to determine the city's status.

Here in our region, they feel confident there are plans in place to handle the Ebola virus, but they say this is an ongoing discussion.

"We were comforted based on this conversation. We want to do our work to make sure the Federal Government can respond appropriately if the need arises in our region and we don't have any of the missteps that took place, not intentionally, but took place nonetheless, in Texas," Fattah said.

"I have great confidence in all these institutions. They're all capable. We can't expect every institution in this country to provide the level of care that's being provided today at NIH (the National Institute of Health)," Dent said.

They do believe that local hospitals are prepared to identify and isolate an Ebola patient.

The question remains whether the patient would be treated at a local hospital or be transferred somewhere like the NIH. They say the answer to that question has to come from the Federal Government.