--- title: Dallas Hospital Alters Story on Ebola Case description: Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital acknowledged Friday there was "no flaw" in its health records canonical: https://time.com/3465993/ebola-dallas-hospital/ author: Sam Frizell article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-04T14:07:32.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:06:24.691Z article:section: Health og:title: Dallas Hospital Alters Story on Ebola Case og:description: Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital acknowledged Friday there was "no flaw" in its health records og:url: https://time.com/3465993/ebola-dallas-hospital/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt76863ef1031f2a69/6986a71006f2c15dc33311ac/texas-ebola1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Texas Hospital Patient Confirmed As First Case Of Ebola Virus Diagnosed In US og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Dallas Hospital Alters Story on Ebola Case twitter:description: Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital acknowledged Friday there was "no flaw" in its health records twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt76863ef1031f2a69/6986a71006f2c15dc33311ac/texas-ebola1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Dallas Hospital No Longer Blaming Technical Glitch for Sending Ebola Patient Home > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=1c6b5335-7180-4b11-b4f3-b5c106ab2dc9&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Ebola - White House Responds [Watch (HLS stream): Ebola - White House Responds](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/fc4PCYko.m3u8) (1:29)  _Published 2014-10-04. Ebola - White House Responds_ by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Oct 4, 2014 2:07 PM UTC  A general view of Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas where a patient has been diagnosed with the Ebola virus on September 30, 2014 in Dallas, Texas. A general view of Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas where a patient has been diagnosed with the Ebola virus on September 30, 2014 in Dallas, Texas. Mike Stone—Getty Images by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Oct 4, 2014 2:07 PM UTC The Texas hospital that initially released the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the United States [acknowledged](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/04/us/containing-ebola-cdc-troops-west-africa.html?%5Fr=0) Friday evening that medical staff had access to the fact that he had just arrived from Liberia, one of the countries worst hit by the outbreak, raising questions about the hospital’s procedures. Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas first admitted Liberian national Thomas E. Duncan in its emergency room on Sept. 25\. Duncan was then sent away on the mistaken belief that he had a low-grade fever from a viral infection, allowing him to come in potential contact with dozens of people, some of whom are now being monitored for the virus. A nurse initially failed to tell a doctor that Duncan had just come from Liberia, and a physician didn’t ask. Duncan was readmitted to the hospital three days later when his symptoms worsened. Initially, on Thursday, Texas Health blamed a technical flaw in its electronic health records system for its decision to send Duncan home. But on Friday evening, the hospital took back that statement and said “there was no flaw” in its records, the New York _Times_ [reports](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/04/us/containing-ebola-cdc-troops-west-africa.html?%5Fr=0), and that hospital staff could see Duncan had been in Liberia. The “patient’s travel history was documented and available to the full care team in the electronic health record (E.H.R.), including within the physician’s workflow,” acknowledged the hospital. “In a well-functioning emergency department, doctors and nurses talk to each other,” Dr. Ashish Jha, a professor at Harvard University’s School of Public Health, told the _Times._ “Also, why didn’t the physician think to ask the question separately? Anyone who comes in with a febrile illness, a travel history, that’s a fundamental part of understanding what might be going on.” More than 3,000 people have already died of Ebola in Africa. In the U.S., health officials have narrowed down the list of people considered most at risk of contracting Ebola to 10 while moving the four people with whom Duncan shared an apartment from their potentially contaminated quarters. \[[_NYT_](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/04/us/containing-ebola-cdc-troops-west-africa.html?%5Fr=0)\] ## Transcript With alarm growing over a potential Ebola outbreak in the US President Obama sent out top officials to reassure the country. The United States is prepared to deal with this crisis both at home and in the region. Our healthcare infrastructure in the United States. is well equipped to stop Ebola in it's tracks. The White House trying to show it has the situation under control after heated criticism that local health officials in Dallas first sent Ebola patient Thomas Aaron Duncan, visiting from Liberia, before his family brought him back. That gap between care causing concern that the disease could spread. There were things that did not go the way they should have in Dallas, but there are a lot of things that went right. Dr. Fouche says the CDC is tracing any contacts Duncan had essential to preventing an outbreak. But as of now, the Obama administration is not considering increased screening for passengers coming into the U. S. or banning travellers from hard hit nations in west Africa relying on screening by those countries. The most effective way to go about controlling this is to prevent those individuals from getting on a plane in the first place. Even as they sought to calm American's concerns officials acknowledged they need to do more. We're having the press conference because we need to get information out because there is a lot of fear. We cannot overcommunicate. 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