It was about 3 a.m. July 30 when Dr. Katie Passaretti got the call from a concerned physician in the emergency room at Carolinas Medical Center. A patient with a fever, who had traveled from Liberia, could be infected with the Ebola virus.

As medical director for infection prevention at Carolinas HealthCare System, Passaretti knew the probability was low. There had never been a case of Ebola in the United States. But with the outbreak raging in West Africa and the ease of international travel, she knew it was possible and serious.

After making sure the patient was isolated and after asking more questions, she rushed to the hospital for an adrenaline-filled day. It was the first of many as she helped prepare the hospital system for the potential of caring for someone with the highly contagious, often deadly viral infection.

That patient turned out to have malaria instead of Ebola, but the incident got Passaretti and her colleagues focused on improving infection prevention protocols almost two months before most other U.S. hospitals. Many waited until late September, when Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan arrived in Dallas, where he transmitted his infection to two hospital nurses. Duncan died Oct. 8, but the nurses recovered.

We had the first real rule-out in the country, said Passaretti, 38, both an internist and an epidemiologist. It definitely ramped us up earlier on than a lot of facilities. The system worked just like it was supposed to. The right things happened, and nobody was at risk.

That Carolinas HealthCares system worked well is, in part, because of Passaretti, who has been on the job since April 2011, coordinating infection prevention for 14 Charlotte-area hospitals.

After that July case, Dr. Jim Hunter, chief medical officer for Carolinas HealthCare, said he got an outpouring of feedback from employees saying were glad Dr. Passaretti was here. We know that we can rely on what shes saying.

When he saw Passarettis interviews on national news, Hunter was proud of how she described the situation. Its her ability to connect, explain and communicate that sets her apart, Hunter said. She can sit with any scientist at the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and then she can turn around and talk to a very different audience and make it very digestible.

Dr. Scott Furney, chairman of the Department of Internal Medicine at Carolinas HealthCare, said Passaretti is one of the rare physicians with both deep medical knowledge and great communication skills.

Her leadership in disseminating information to doctors and hospital employees about Ebola resulted in the best coordinated campaign I have ever seen, Furney said. That included websites, printed fliers and videos to teach employees how to screen patients by phone or in person and how to put on and take off protective gear. Im sure it was a group effort. But Katie is the content expert. She had to be driving much of that process, he said.

Read more:

Seven to Watch: Hospital epidemiologist led Ebola preparation for Carolinas HealthCare System