Yesterday I discovered first-hand that all of the clinics in our local Midwestern university-based clinic system are having their receptionists ask everybody at check-in:
-- Have you traveled overseas in the past 30 days?
-- Have you been in contact with any person who has Ebola, or the remains of any such person?
This was the only health-related question that the receptionist was tasked with asking, and it's being asked at ALL clinics of every patient: podiatry, psychiatry, physical therapy, optometrist, all of them.
My initial reaction was that it felt excessive (and the doctor sympathized, pointing out that in Florida, medical professionals can't legally ask about guns in the home!)
When I sniped about it on Facebook though, my conservative friends and my medical-professional friends joined forces to agree that it was a reasonable approach -- an alliance I don't see all that often.
I'm still not entirely convinced. It feels to me that there's a public health concern to be balanced here in terms of not contributing to already-overblown public worries. I'd feel a little better if they were using it as a public-education mechanism, to tell people who answer "no" to both questions: GOOD, no risk for you!! But that aspect doesn't seem to be part of the script.
What's happening by you? Is it the right level of screening, and if not, what would be a better approach?