The goal of any Environmental Services Department within a healthcare facility should be to prevent the spread of infectious agents among patients and healthcare workers by meticulous cleaning and appropriate disinfection of environmental surfaces. To reach this goal, the EVS department will need to have a comprehensive training program, the objective of which should be to provide department staff with the information they need to accomplish their jobs safely. The training program should be a part of the big picture of “How to Protect Yourself.” At a minimum the training program should include the following:

1. Identification of occupational risks and hazards associated with handling infectious waste.
2. Sharps safety.
3. Blood borne pathogens.
4. Infection control training – (a) Microbiology and (b) Transmission.
5. Hand hygiene.
6. Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) including donning and doffing.
7. MSDS and hazards associated with using chemicals (cleaning agents, disinfectants, etc.)
8. Product usage training including proper cleaning and disinfection techniques.

The benefit behind breaking the training into sections is two-fold. First, it allows the person responsible for training to involve other departments such as Infection Control or Occupational Health & Safety where specific knowledge and expertise can be called upon. Second, by segmenting the areas into shorter pieces the trainee is not overwhelmed. The individual sections also allow for developing unique methods of delivery. Education should be tailored to the size, topic and needs of the group. Not all programs must be instructor-led in classroom setting. They can also consist of CD programs and/or video-based programs or a series of self-study modules. For example, the product usage training may be better suited to a traditional classroom setting where employees can observe someone performing the task while other sections such as Blood Borne Pathogens can use video-based training. Switching up the method of delivery helps keep the trainee engaged.

A basic understanding of these eight topics doesn’t require a stethoscope or coke-bottle glasses, or even the ability to squint. It takes knowledge, imagination and responsibility. Knowledge… to know basic microbiology, where pathogenic microbes are found, and how they cause disease; to know how cleaning and disinfectant products should be used; to know how to be protected from exposure to blood borne pathogens and sharps injuries; about the proper use of PPE. Imagination… to be able to actually picture the microbes all around us. Responsibility… to take reasonable action to prevent disease.

One person dies every six minutes from hospital-acquired infection. It’s tragic that this is allowed to continue and that an Environmental Services department can be allowed to operate without ongoing, targeted and evolving education.

Time spent properly training staff is an investment that pays dividends for a long time. Training should be a constant process, not just something you do for new employees or to meet the annual requirement. Whenever new products, equipment or procedures are introduced into your department, all staff should be trained on their safe and proper use. Research has shown that adults learn differently than children do, they generally learn more and retain more if they are involved in the training process. Adults learn best by doing, not by listening to lectures or by viewing videos. Lectures and videos have a place in the training process, but trainee involvement needs to be included.

Feel free to share your thoughts and comments.

You need to develop and improve your managerial skills on an ongoing basis as your career develops and as you meet new managerial challenges.

Whether you manage a department or a project team, it’s important to know how to get the work done right. When you’re asked to achieve something with the help of others, it’s complex – and you spend much of your time managing relationships instead of doing the actual work. So, you must develop not only your technical skills, but your management skills as well.

Delegating, motivating, communicating, and understanding team dynamics are some of the key skills needed. With those skills, along with patience and a strong sense of balance, you can become a very effective manager.

You can comment or share this post.

Sometimes, despite your best efforts, there are problems with individual performance. As a manager, you have to deal with these promptly. If you don’t discipline, you risk negative impacts on the rest of the team as well as your customers, as poor performance typically impacts customer service, and it hurts the team and everything that the team has accomplished. It’s very demotivating to work beside someone who consistently fails to meet expectations, so if you tolerate it, the rest of the team will likely suffer. In our article on team management skills, we explore this issue in further detail and give you some examples.

Team performance will also suffer when differences between individual team members turn into outright conflict, and it’s your job as team manager to facilitate a resolution. Read our article on Resolving Team Conflict for a three-step process for doing this. However, conflict can be positive when it highlights underlying structural problems – make sure that you recognize conflict and deal with its causes, rather than just suppressing its symptoms or avoiding it.

Good management means understanding how teams operate. It’s worth remembering that teams usually follow a certain pattern of development. It’s important to encourage and support people through this process, so that you can help your team become fully effective as quickly as possible.

When forming teams, managers must create a balance so that there’s a diverse set of skills, personalities, and perspectives. You may think it’s easier to manage a group of people who are likely to get along, but truly effective teams invite many viewpoints and use their differences to be creative and innovative.

Here, your task is to develop the skills needed to steer those differences in a positive direction. This is why introducing a team charter and knowing how to resolve team conflict are so useful for managing your team effectively. Finding great new team members, and developing the skills needed for your team’s success is another important part of team formation.

Please comment or share this article.

For any healthcare administrator to discount quality results – with documented evidence – and revert to justification based on square footage borders on the unconscionable and very possibly unethical.  To ignore your results and measures and revert to staffing levels and budget levels based only on square feet of floor surface will certainly have a detrimental effect on overall patient health, outcomes, and survival.  Just as proper staffing and proper processes in place by nursing saves lives, proper staffing and proper processes used by Environmental Services saves lives.  Environmental Services should be viewed by everyone in healthcare as an investment in patients and quality outcomes, not an expense to the bottom line.

Here are seven *spectacular* ways to make your Monday rock – and I bet they get you off to such a great start the whole week will rock too!

1. Take time to set your mind. A little time in prayer, meditation or just reflecting on all the amazing blessings you have does *marvelous* things for setting your mind and spirit in a great state to start the week.

2. Stretch! Stretching does *great* stuff for body. It promotes blood flow, it works out kinks and aches and it makes you feel more flexible. And really, when we’re more flexible and we feel good our minds are more flexible too!

3. Do a bit of exercise. You bet. Strong bodies help build strong minds. Get those endorphins flowing, build muscle, feel buff.

4. Picture your week. Create the image of the week that you’re starting – and see it all going GREAT! See it just the way it should be. Don’t worry, even if things come up, you’d be amazed at how easily you can adapt those surprises in and help make them part of how great the week is!

5. Make today’s to do list. If you haven’t already done it the night before, do one now. Don’t make it exhaustive and don’t make it for the rest of the month. Today’s list is fine. Then find one thing you can get done straight away and get your first check mark!

6. Smile and say hello to everyone (yes, even "them") that you work with on the way into your desk/office/cube/work station. You’d be surprised at how much starting with a smile will make both their week and yours better!

7. Be *positive*! For real! This is pithy, but true. Look at things with a glass half full – heck – even go 3/4 full! – mentality. Sure, stuff happens, but look at it as an opportunity! Yes, I hear some of you thinking that you’re a "realist" or " too pragmatic" for that. Well, guess what! The most pragmatic thing you can do is to change the reality by going after those opportunities by unleashing your creative mind with a positive outlook for creative solutions with enthusiasm!

I wrote about goals a few days ago and one question I received was “what are your department goals for this year? That is a great question because I make it a practice to write out what I call major objectives for the new year each December. These are sort of mid-range goals, not short term, and not long term. That is why they are objectives. Sometimes they continue for more than one year. No serious rules here, just get some things down on paper you so you can plan the necessary action steps to achieve them.

Here are my four major objectives in 2011

1. To improve Infection control within the medical center

2. To improve environmental services staff knowledge of their role in infection control

3. To monitor the cleanliness of the facility with data driven results

4. Better patient outcomes

There you go. Those are the foundational objectives that I have used to develop a number of goals and an even greater number of action items to achieve them.

Enjoy…

In the great work presented in Options for Evaluating Environmental Cleaning, December 2010 by Alice Guh, MD, MPH and Philip Carling, MD, objective monitoring of environmental surfaces was studied and presented as a necessary component of training. In view of the evidence that transmission of many healthcare acquired pathogens (HAPs) is related to contamination of near-patient surfaces and equipment, all hospitals are encouraged to develop programs to optimize the thoroughness of high touch surface cleaning as part of terminal room cleaning at the time of discharge or transfer of patients. A two level approach to this is presented and quite well discussed.

For now please draw your attention to the 8 locations above. The importance of targeted cleaning to these surfaces must be taught to your staff and reinforced on a regular basis. While many of our staff have an excellent understanding of the basic policies and procedures involved in terminal room cleaning, most will benefit from focused educational interventions related to our evolving understanding of the role of the environment in healthcare-associated pathogen (HAP) transmission. Specific targeted cleaning will not only reduce HAI’s it will greatly increase the awareness level of your staff.

At our hospital we are in year three of a Service Excellence Initiative. Partnering with Custom Learning Systems we have been been teaching all our staff hard and soft skills to improve customer service through service excellence. Being on the Service Excellence council has given me many opportunities to directly and indirectly influence the process and see first hand the cause and effect results of the program.

Here on my website I try to focus on Environmental Services related topics and the all important “room and restroom always clean” question.

Here are some initial steps for improving your HCAHPS scores:

Train and implement patient visits and staff rounding, utilizing HCAHPS scripting

Have regular, (daily or weekly) 15 minute stand up huddle with each shift to share HCAHPS scores, patient satisfaction and tips to continuously improve the patients experience

Create a regular report to share with your staff and direct reports recapping your scores, efforts and results

Pick one thing to focus on each month to increase your performance. Preferably something you can tie back into your HCAHPS questions.

Over the past several weeks, as a lot of you know, I’ve had a TON of stuff going on, survey’s disaster drill planning, policy updates and more! And I’ve gotten a TON of work from home business ideas for my company that I haven’t been able to put into action yet because I’ve been so busy!

As a result, I haven’t been focused like I should have been and realized that maybe I need to double up with my self improvement. When I’m feeling unfocused and unproductive I am AWARE of it and do whatever I can at that moment to work on it and am constantly improving myself.

Recently I saw a gentleman named Benny Morris speak on self improvement and how to break past the barriers in our lives.

Dr. Benny Morris:

ALL of you have heard the whole “break past your beliefs” thing and probably have heard it many times. This seminar was NOT just another self-help “thing,” I originally wasn’t going to talk about this for that reason, but I decided what I learned was too valuable to share and would really improve your business ten fold!

Before I get into everything I’ve learned, I want to give you a brief history on Dr. Morris, to show you his credibility. Benny owned the FIRST Tony Robins Franchise and went on to tour with Tony across the country. In addition, he’s created a 5 step method (Valeo Method) on how to achieve your goals and dreams and his book is fantastic! He truly practices what he preaches and that is SO important when you’re listening to ANY leader!

What I Learned That Changed My Business and Life Forever:

During the seminar, thinking about why I still feel like I have things holding me back, yet I’m successful and really feel somehow at the same time that I give my business my all! I was confused and frustrated with myself.

Then Benny asked, “How many of you are living up to 50% of your potential,” NO ONE raised their hand, then he asked how many were living up to 10% of their potential, NO ONE raised their hand!!

This was it! I was NOT using all of my potential and I KNEW it! How crazy is that?? Most of us know that we’re not using our full potential, and still continue to do a half ass job day in and day out. We sit back and make excuses for not doing something and justify it with our EGO, then it never gets done!

What I learned at that seminar was to really push yourself to make a positive, disciplined, productive routine into a habit. There is no excuse for lack of discipline, and really no excuse for ultimate failure. Sure we might fail here and there, but that’s part of success!! However if you let that failure defeat you I HIGHLY suggest you figure out why and fix the problem within.

We’ve all been told this, but how many of us actually follow it?

So Here’s My Action Step For You TODAY:

Here’s what I want you to do every day, for the rest of your life ! Whenever a thought comes into your head like “oh you can’t do that,” “You’re too young, You’re too old” blah blah blah, imagine it leaving your mind, grabbing that thought, throwing it into a trash bin tied to a helium balloon and floating away into space…

Your Ego is NOT your friend! It will say anything to you to keep you from your goals, and this is why you have to make these little mental pictures and tricks to keep it from taking you over.

Finally I want to tell you that Affirmations are so important. Admittedly I had stopped writing them, but from today on I am going to write them every single day, they condition our subconscious to allow us to be successful and free from mental barriers. Let’s write them together, after all repetition and routine will turn into habit .

To Your Success!

Successful leadership in healthcare environmental services requires constant vigilance, ongoing education, willingness to identify opportunities for improvement in ourselves first, and staff second. In that spirit I share 11 principles and 14 traits for leading in this ever changing environment.

Read the rest of this entry

Resonant Leaders engage us. They evoke positive emotions and inspire us through their positive thoughts and clear vision. Leaders develop their resonance through compassion, hope, mindfulness and they maintain their resonance. Is it any wonder this leads to increased revenue in an organization?

Leaders of all kinds possess these abilities. However, their level of emotional intelligence determines their ability to manage the feeling and emotions that motivate groups to meet its goals. Resonance, in terms of brain function, means that people’s emotional centers are in synch in a positive way. We have to do everything we can to promote resonant leadership skills.

Sure it seems like a never ending cycle of cutbacks, reductions and expectations to do more with less. Some hospitals reach the breaking point sooner because they have been more efficient to begin with. Eventually even the over-staffed facilities will feel the challenge to keep up.

Patient satisfaction scores are one measure of performance. While it is important to listen to the customer we must first measure our staff performance ourselves. When rounding do you take the time to observe how your staff are cleaning, and offer tips, suggestions and training on the spot?

Read the rest of this entry

A properly stocked cleaning cart will help prevent wasted trips to supply closets and should be equipped with any of the following items which are necessary for your work:

Read the rest of this entry

How to get rid of backlogs
There are basically two types of task which we are faced with during a typical day. First there is the type of task which either gets done or doesn’t get done. You either renew the car insurance or you don’t. You either paint the bedroom or you don’t. You either buy a new dress or you don’t. You either send your great aunt a birthday card or you don’t. The consequences of doing or not doing this type of task may range from the trivial to the momentous, but essentially they are one-offs.

Read the rest of this entry