As fears of an Ebola outbreak in the U.S. increase, big cities are getting creative in how they're preparing for the worst.

Dr. Ross Wilson, the Chief Medical Officer for the NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation, tells CNN's Michaela Pereira they are sending actors to public hospitals in the Big Apple to fake symptoms of Ebola in order to test how well the staff identifies and isolates possible cases.

Dr. Wilson describes the process:

"We train simulated patients and then we take a standard script, they arrive at an emergency department and staff are unaware that these patients are not real patients, and this goes through for about 50 to 60 minutes until the patient is isolated or we end the scenario."

So what should the hospital staff be looking for and what is the proper response?

Two simple things,  Dr. Wilson says.

"Someone comes in with a headache, symptoms of vomiting, diarrhea, and a fever, immediately get a travel history."

If the person has been to the three countries in Western Africa – Sierra Leone, Guinea, or Liberia, they are immediately isolated.

And how is New York City doing?

Dr. Wilson is optimistic.

"We’ve been gratified that most things have gone right," he says.

"But there are a lot of human beings in this process and they all have to come together in the same way every time, with every patient."

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