We want to have scrubs, gowns,
goggles, boots, masks, hairnet, and
gloves on. We are not going to come
out until we decontaminate.”
“We go into each room with
everything we need so we don’t
come back out of the room,” Goff
added. “We will have the sanitizing
sprayer in a plastic bag and will
clean everything from our cart
before it comes out of the room.
Once we get the dirty items out, we
will decontaminate everything in
the room and let it sit. Then we will
make the bed and take the clean in.”
“We start with our daily walk-in to
introduce ourselves, we apply hand
sanitizer in front of the patient and
put on our gloves.” Goff continued.
“We tell them who we are, fill up all
their supplies, take trash out, take
gloves off, hand sanitize and put a
clean pair of gloves back on.”
The LCRH environmental process
even has a specialized procedure on
how they deal with their cleaning
rags.
“We have 4 to 6 target zones
we are working on,” Goff stated.
“Certain rags will only clean
certain areas. We will clean
everything in the room’s four areas
before going to the next, and clean
only four items to a rag.”
“The last thing we clean is a
patient’s restroom,” Goff said. “We
use a different color-coded rag for
that. Before we come out, we take
those gloves off and hand sanitizes
and put on fresh gloves before dust
mopping and mopping the room. We
are working on using a new flat-mop
system, that is disposed of after
each use.”
The LCRH
environmental services team also
uses a specialized fluorescent
marking spray for training purposes
and to ensure that critical areas are
free of any contaminants.
“We use a black light device for
training to show if we have wiped
it off or passed by it, and walk
through with them to show them
areas that didn’t get cleaned as
good as we expect,” explained
Environmental Services Supervisor
Justin Goff. “We use it for training
when we have a brand new team
member. We also use this process in
all of our operating rooms on a daily
basis.”
The Lake Cumberland Environmental Services team members are, pictured, Linda Lane, Shelley Bell, Taylor West,
Stevens, Shawn Dick, Jamie Gosser, Violet Price, Kelly Gibson, Merle Haste, Lanella Germain, Patty Krumm, and
York, Blaine Gibson, Talon Bloodletter, Ricky Young, Carolyn Johnson, Jeffrey Kenneth Goines, Brian Vanhook,
Julie Ann Adkins, Virgil Bray, Gail Williams, Ricky Linville, Christopher Loveless, and Tina Gastineau.
12 • I n T ouch with S outhern K entucky
M ay 2020