Huddle Suggestions

I wanted to try a new approach with the staff so I shared with them the following in our morning huddle today:

 

Question: What is the first thing that we notice when we enter a hotel room that we have paid for?

 

Answer: We notice if it is clean and smells fresh. ( staff shared that they also noticed if the bathroom toilet and shower looked cleaned, and if the carpets, furniture and bedding looked and smelled clean).

 

My point: We judge cleanliness by our senses, what we see, and smell in this case.

 

The same holds true for our patient rooms and areas, our customers judge our cleanliness of our environment by what they see, and smell.

 

We are responsible for Infection Control #1 and Perception Control #2:

 

Infection Control

 

Our choices regarding what we clean and disinfect will determine whether we are part of the solution or the problem regarding infection control.

 

Will someone be contaminated with C-diff because we chose not to clean a high frequency touch item?

 

We will never know how many lives we effect either in a positive or negative manner each day.

 

Outcome: Our cleaning and disinfecting choices are important we effect lives.

 

 

Perception Control

 

Fact: When we enter a room every moment we are in that room our patients and their families are very aware of our presence. They see and watch what we do, they hear what we are doing, and they can smell what we have done in the room and bathroom.

 

Seeing – They watch everything that we do, what we clean and what we don’t.

Hearing – When we are in the bathroom they can hear if we run water, flush and scrub toilets, open and close shower doors.

Smell- They can smell the cleaning and disinfecting products that we used when we were in their room and bathroom.

 

Our challenges:

 

SHOW YOU CARE – ask if it is ok to clean their room or should you come back later?

 

BE SEEN – or leave a card on their table so they know you were there.

 

BE HEARD – let them hear you working and scrubbing.

 

Leave their environment clean and refreshed, so there will be no doubt that their room was always cleaned.

 

The Outcome: When asked if their room was always cleaned? There will be no doubt in their minds because of our intentional efforts.