The contrast in handling two Ebola diagnoses highlights how differently cities and hospitals prepare for health emergencies. Dr. Craig Spencer alerted his aid agency that he had developed a fever, and was transported to Bellevue Hospital Center by specially trained emergency workers wearing protective gear. The patient registration staff and triage nurses were trained to ask people with certain symptoms about international travel. On the seventh floor is the full isolation unit, originally set up to treat people with drug-resistant tuberculosis. Beyond hospitals, the city's fire department trained an ambulance crew to transport suspected Ebola patients, and 911 dispatchers now ask people calling for an ambulance if they've traveled to West Africa recently. The National Institutes of Health and other hospitals with special biocontainment units regularly "do drills about how you need to protect yourself," said Dr.