The Special Clinical Studies Unit (SCSU) is an inpatient unit at the NIH Clinical Center designed with state-of-the-art infrastructure that allows for isolation capabilities and infection control while patients participate in clinical research studies. The SCSU has been in operation since the summer of 2010.
Frequently-Asked Questions
The unit has been used multiple times to care for patients participating in a variety of NIH clinical research protocols, including influenza studies.
Numerous redundant systems and precautions are in place to maintain isolation of the SCSU from the rest of the Clinical Center and the surrounding community. These systems and precautions include special air handling systems, cardkey restricted access, separate entrance and exit pathways for staff, including a shower prior to exit, and protocols for handling waste.
Senior NIH leadership is collaborating with partner agencies to determine the priority of referrals to NIH for consideration for hospitalization in the SCSU, should it be required, and would consider each potential patient on a case-by-case basis. Like all patients seen at the NIH Clinical Center, patients coming to the SCSU would volunteer to participate in a NIH clinical protocol.
This information is patient confidential and can only be released by the patient themselves or if the patient agrees the information can be released. Like all patients seen at the NIH Clinical Center, patients coming to the SCSU would volunteer to participate in a NIH clinical protocol.
This would be determined through a patient-specific assessment that depends upon his or her clinical and laboratory status. Patients will not be released from the Unit until it has been demonstrated that the highly contagious infection cannot be detected by sensitive molecular assays.