Watch above: It’s one of the most important jobs in the health sector yet many think the number of environmental services workers needs to be increased. Meaghan Craig finds out what is at stake for patients when housekeeping is not up to par.
SASKATOON – They are some of the most complex facilities to run and to clean. Audits are underway at Saskatoon’s three regional hospitals and where needed, corrective action is being taken to improve cleanliness.
Some believe the problem isn’t in the procedures but rather the inadequate amount of environmental service working staff or housekeepers to do the work.
“When you talk with environmental services workers they are really the unseen but really important part of a functioning health care system. They keep infection control at bay, they manage the day to day cleanness of a facility,” said SEIU-West President Barbara Cape.
Clean hospitals help keep patients safe but reports have surfaced about unclean wards at Royal University Hospital (RUH) and about staff overwhelmed by their workloads.
According to Cape, while the work for this department has increased, the number of staff to do it has not.
“As we have aging facilities and as we need more doctors and nurses and as we’re providing more care we need more environmental services workers.”
At this time, Cape says the role is fundamentally important in warding off high-intensity infections like Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) or Vancomycin-resistant Enterococci (VRE) and is the defence for infection control, aside from hand washing.
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“If we don’t put our shoulder into this problem, we are going to see more infections, we’re going to see more problems in terms of making sure that when people are in the hospital or the long-term care facility that they are on the mend, they’re healing and they leave the hospital in better shape than when they came in,” explained Cape.
Patient loads within the region have increased by over 22,000 since 2009. According to health officials, so have the number of full-time environment service worker positions in Saskatoon. By 2015, there will be 304, up 51 positions from six years ago.
“Is that enough? I think when it comes to cleanliness there are two aspects to it, there’s really effectiveness of the clean and the frequency of the clean and really, we’re actually addressing both of those in many ways over the next six to 18 months,” Nilesh Kavia, vice president of finance and corporate services for SHR.
For the last year, all three hospital sites have been the subject of audits. There are 80 audits done every month at RUH. Three different types of audits can be conducted by management with a pass or fail reported back to the appropriate department.
“They tell us in terms of are we using the most effective substances to clean, do have the right standard work, are we addressing all the surfaces that need to be cleaned.”
The findings have also shown a need for updates to facilities. At RUH, the priority will be to improve the emergency area, public washrooms as well as more than 100 patient rooms and washrooms. Twenty of those rooms will be worked on within the next fiscal year and the remaining 83 the next year.
There are approximately 105 standard work protocols for cleaning that staff are to follow but officials say the perception of clean is often based on the age of the facility. An example of this is discoloured counter tops in the public washrooms at RUH as opposed to those at Saskatoon City Hospital.
“The solution is not always adding more staff, the solution is making sure we’re using the resources that we have in the most effective way possible.”
The three standard audits used within SHR (below):
An example of the 28-step cleaning protocol for a patient’s room (below):
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