Schedule The Perception Of Quality
By Roger Gobbo, PHH, Past President, OHHA
The perception of housekeeping services delivered with quality often starts with the appearance of the facility to the human eye.
“What you see is what you get” or “If it looks good, then it has to be good.”
In health care facilities, we know that ‘looking good’ is not the whole substance in the quality of service delivered. Just because there may be paper debris or a used straw on the floor of a patient/resident room doesn’t necessarily mean the room is not being properly cleaned on a regular basis. Just as true is that just because there isn’t any shine on the floor, doesn’t mean the floor is not being cleaned on a regular basis.
What do we have to do to advance the perception of a quality service? We schedule project work to put back that ‘shine and glimmer’ to the patient/resident rooms. We don’t project clean for the shine, we project clean for cleanliness, sanitation, providing protection to the environmental surfaces, and to help provide an environment that is conducive to the betterment of the health of our patients and residents.
Routine cleaning adhering to healthcare facilities cleaning standards provides the greater safeguard than does project cleaning. Performing tasks (project cleaning) that promote the appearance of a quality service as perceived by the human eye.
There are parameters within the health care facility that guide the way project tasks are planned and carried out. How these project tasks are planned and carried out are determined by a number of factors:
• Is the health care facility a hospital or a long-term care facility?
• Does the facility promote a high shine, low shine or no shine look for the floors?
• What size budget has been provided for ‘project work’? The greater the budget, the more frequent scheduling of major project work.
• What area of the country (warm climate versus colder climate) is the facility located? This also factors in determining the frequency of project scheduling.
Let’s review the essentials of project scheduling and task performance.
COMMUNICATION
It is of the highest priority that the managers, in charge of the area affected by the upcoming project work, have been previously notified. When and how much project work is to be carried out is communicated in a variety of ways:
• Housekeeping manager/supervisor to unit manager written and then confirmed verbally. Room/rooms are taken out of patient/resident circulation for the time needed to project cleaning them;
• Schedule by housekeeping software. Rotational room closures throughout the year. Working with patient admissions and the unit manager to arrange the time needed to project cleaning the rooms.
• Facilities management providing room upgrades where wall repairs, plumbing repairs, drapery cleaning/replacement, cooling/heating repairs, painting, etc., and project cleaning are performed as room/rooms are taken out of circulation for the time needed.
• Seasonal slowdowns in acute care facilities, where units are blocked off and allow for ‘team project’ cleaning of these areas. This usually occurs during the Christmas – New Year’s season and sometimes during the summer when hospitals may experience lower patient census.
• Long term facilities may delay admittance of a new resident in order to ‘freshen-up’ the resident room.
EQUIPMENT AND MATERIALS
The staffs, carrying out the project tasks, are properly trained and have equipment that is safe to use. There can never be too many caution signs or even caution tape to block off the entrance to the room while floors and walls are drying. No one other than the project staff is allowed in the room unit until it has been completed and inspected to the required cleaning standards. In rooms where repairs have been made, no patient/resident will be admitted until it has been inspected and certified safe to occupy.
LABOUR RESOURCES
The staff used to project clean may be set up in different manners depending on the type of facility, size of facility, size of budget:
- it may be staff permanently assigned to project work;
there may be a ‘team’ made up of staff where each staff member may be deemed to deliver certain tasks, such as wall cleaning, floor scrubbing and re-finishing, etc.
- it may be a rotational staff system wherein many staff may be trained to project cleaning within their own work areas.
- The staff has been properly trained as per Occupational, Health and Safety legislation and facility policies and procedures.
TIME ALLOWANCES
Average time allowances for the types of tasks to be delivered should be established from the type of room, size of room and number of tasks to be performed. This must be established through a recognized housekeeping software program and/or through a proper Housekeeping Methodology Study.
Having established average room times greatly assists the patient unit manager, resident care manager in working with the housekeeping staff with planning the occupancy of these rooms. There are variances to time allowances regarding the time of year, summer versus winter. Drying times for floor finishes are greatly affected by humidity and affect the length of time required to complete the project tasks.
QUALITY CONTROL
The room is ready to be occupied by the patient or resident when the room is completed to the cleaning standards as required by the housekeeping department/facility. This last essential Quality Control), is definitely not the least of the essentials. A good quality control system that is objective will ensure that the cleaning standards will be attained and maintained.
Will the patient be pleased to see where they will be staying during their recuperation? Will the resident and their family be satisfied that what they see is clean and conducive to a healthy environment? If they are satisfied, then their perception is that they will receive quality service from an outstanding facility.
