environmental hygiene
environmental hygiene
By Marcia Williams, MA, CHEST, CNACC, CSCT
Winning Department of the Year: A Journey of Excellence and Resilience
In the realm of healthcare, the environmental services department( EVS) plays a crucial yet often overlooked role. Starting with some basic principles, we forged great partnerships both inside and outside of the organization and incorporated healthcare innovations to create a replicable program that has laid a strong foundation for our department. To this point, over the past three years, our team at Orlando Regional Medical Center( ORMC) has achieved remarkable recognition by winning the Department of the Year award two out of three years( 2022 and 2024). This achievement stands as a testament to our commitment to excellence, innovation, and teamwork. As we look toward the future, our dedication is to continually strive to become better as we live out our daily mission: to take care of our facility and each other.
The Transition Phase: Embracing Change in 2021
The year 2021 stood out as a testament to our department’ s strength and adaptability. Amid the global COVID-19 pandemic, we faced significant challenges, including the transition of department leadership and the shift from contractor support to an in-house program. Despite these hurdles, our team didn’ t falter. Instead, we united to ensure continuity and improve our services while keeping our focus on patient safety and operational efficiency.
One of our pivotal accomplishments during this transition was the successful implementation of new technology related to using a new tracking system. This innovative shift not only streamlined our processes but also significantly improved our response times, cutting the average turnaround time for patient rooms from 108.21 minutes to 61.39 minutes— a remarkable 66 percent reduction. This achievement was particularly significant considering the operational strains imposed by the pandemic, and it set a new standard for our production metrics.
Focusing on Patient Experience: The Heart of Our Mission At the core of our mission as an EVS department lies the commitment to enhancing patient experience. Our efforts resulted in our average courtesy score for 2021 exceeding the goal of 70.6 percent with an impressive score of 82.3 percent. This consistent achievement month-over-month not only reflected our dedication but also distinguished us from previous years— where we struggled to meet our goals. This transformation in patient experience earned us the prestigious Orlando Health Marilyn King Award, a recognition reserved for departments that excel in patient care and service.
Our strategy for improving patient experience was comprehensive, involving the drafting of detailed plans when challenges arose and collaborating across departments for support and recovery. A notable example of this was in May 2021, when a veteran expressed dissatisfaction with the care he received. Our team’ s response was exemplary. We coordinated with various departments to ensure his room was spotless, enhancing it with patriotic decorations, and presented him with a heartfelt card signed by the entire care team. This level of care exemplified our commitment to not only addressing the immediate needs of our patients but also making them feel valued and supported.
Major Milestones
We aggressively and continuously refine our processes and protocols which will enable us to sustain our operations above industry standards. Our three major milestones have been in the areas of Training, Innovation and Non-Clinical Trials and Research.
Training
Certification training provides safer outcomes for our patients, helps with retention, is empowering to the staff, builds their self-confidence and job loyalty. This is paramount to their everyday job performance which is translated in lower turnaround times and higher courtesy scores. In addition to industry-required training and certifications, we have doubled down on our training and increased the number of certification classes and attendees for Association for the Healthcare Environment( AHE) certifications. This has given our team members an opportunity to enhance their skills, increase job loyalty, boost their self-empowerment with education and certification by getting their CHEST, CNACC and CSCT distinctions. To date, about 80 percent of our team members have at least one AHE certification, in some cases some team members have all three. All classes are taught by our own certified trainers for each designation. Additionally, we sponsor trainers and supervisors to attend the AHE Exchange Conference annually.
Innovation and Trials & Research Our goal is to provide the safest environment for our patients, visitors and staff as we continually look at ways to improve our operational efficiency, patient safety, improve HAIs and reduce our carbon footprint. For this consideration we continue to expand on the following innovative initiatives:
●Mattress and furniture QR codes Having implemented the use of QR codes( which when scanned populates questions as to the condition), on all organization mattresses / beds and furniture, enhances a thorough inspection. The findings of their condition can be digitally submitted to a database which is reviewed by leadership. This ensures the right patient is in the right bed safely. This system also allows us to keep accurate inventory and inspections of these items, improving our adherence to TJC EC. 02.06.01 EP1, EP26.0.
We further refined the process even more to keep better track of mattresses and furniture. Our discharge technicians now carry extra bed tags to both assign or tag mattresses and / or furniture to submit it for inspection. With this process, we are now able to determine unsuitable mattresses that are no longer safe for patient use. As a result of this procedure, we now keep a live record of all our mattresses and hospital furniture which also enables us to know if failed mattresses or furniture have been removed or changed.
● Color additive to disinfectants After a successful non-clinical trial( May 2022 through June
2023) of using a color additive to disinfectants to enhance our
28 • www. healthcarehygienemagazine. com • mar-apr 2025