Feds reject NJ hospital’s mobile Ebola unit

Federal officials have rejected a northern New Jersey hospital’s plan to use a mobile unit to care for potential Ebola patients.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did not say why it turned down Hackensack University Medical Center’s plan to use three trailers a half mile from the hospital. The hospital had hoped to isolate Ebola patients from other patients.

But the mayor and city manager raised concern about placing the trailers behind a fast-food restaurant in an area that flooded during Superstorm Sandy.

Mayor John Labrosse, who is a safety expert at the hospital, tells The Record newspaper the medical center is well prepared to handle any potential Ebola patients in an isolation and decontamination room.