On October 8, media reported an outbreak of Ebola at Phelps Memorial Hospital Center in Sleepy Hollow, NY, just four miles from Pace’s Pleasantville campus. Not long after, however, a letter was released by hospital administration, reassuring members of the community that this report was false.

While the rumored case of Ebola at Phelps was declared to be untrue by President and Chief Executive Officer Keith Saifan, the hospital is reportedly doing what it can to prepare for any potential case of the disease.

In his letter to the community, Saifan assured that Phelps Memorial had developed a plan to prepare and a implement a set of procedures for the treatment of Ebola.

In attempting to identify cases of Ebola, Phelps professionals are required to ask patients about their travel history. If patients display symptoms of the disease, they are to be immediately placed in an isolation room. Once in the isolation room, these patients “would not pose a threat to anyone in the hospital,” Saifan said.

Westchester Health Commissioner, Dr. Sherlita Amler, has also told the public all hospitals in the lower Hudson Valley are prepared for potential Ebola cases.

However, hospital nurses and doctors have voiced their skepticism. Junior nursing student, Jennifer Robertson, has spoken to doctors amidst her clinical experience and has a similar view.

“Apparently, Westchester Medical Center staff said that they would get all the cases at a trauma center,” Robertson said. “Seeing how it is difficult to know how Ebola spreads, [whether] airborne or droplets, it becomes difficult to know exactly how to be prepared.”

Ebola, caused by infection of strains of the Ebola virus, is a deadly disease that has received much media attention following an outbreak this year.

Research has shown the disease is most likely hosted in animals native to Africa. Signs and symptoms of Ebola include high fevers, head and muscle pain, lethargy, digestive distress such as diarrhea or nausea, stomach pain, or inexplicable bleeding or bruising.

At this point, eight cases have been recorded in the United States and were treated in Nebraska, Maryland, and Texas, according to BBC News Africa. Of these cases, three patients recovered, four are currently in treatment, and one passed away in Dallas, Texas. Thus far, no cases have arisen in New York.