MRHC Department Working to Keep Patients and Staff Safe
July 24, 2020 9:21 am
The Environmental Services (EVS) team at Magnolia Regional Health Center (MRHC) has always followed a detailed process to ensure patients, visitors and staff members are as safe as possible when in our facilities. Since the beginning of the COVID pandemic, their roles may have changed and looked differently, but their efforts and devotion to thoroughly cleaning our facilities have not.
Our EVS team has always worked diligently to follow The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines and protocols to clean areas of the hospital including, but not limited to, patient rooms, emergency department rooms, common areas, operating rooms and clinical work areas. Even down to the smallest details and areas, such as furniture, remote controls, door knobs and handles and elevator buttons, MRHC EVS remains focused on the task at hand.
“The work the individuals on our EVS team do is truly heroic and life-saving in many instances,” said Jim Hobson, CEO at MRHC. “To provide a safe and clean environment for our patients and guests is truly our top priority, and these individuals work incredibly hard to ensure all who enter our doors have a great experience and are kept safe.”
MRHC has always prided itself on cleaning its facilities at the highest standard and has undergone rigorous training for the cleaning of routine patient rooms and rooms used by potentially contagious illnesses, such as during the COVID pandemic.
There are three transmission-based precautions in which the MRHC EVS team focuses on and sanitizes daily. Those are contact, droplet and airborne precautions. The CDC has categorized the corona strand COVID-19 as a droplet/airborne isolation. Since that categorization, MRHC has modified many COVID-19 units to negative pressurized air flow units, which means using lower air pressure to allow outside air into the protected unit. According to www.airinnovations.com, this traps and keeps potentially harmful particles within the negative pressure room by preventing internal air from leaving the space. As a result, people outside of the room are protected from exposure.
“While my team has always worked hard to appropriately and most effectively clean spaces and items throughout our facilities, they have enhanced their cleaning methods and protocols even further during the pandemic,” said Paul Shanks, Director of Environmental and Linen Services at MRHC.
Shanks added, “We continue to enhance our cleaning efforts and are confident in our abilities to protect our patients and staff during, and after, the pandemic.”
With COVID at the forefront of everyone’s minds, MRHC EVS continues to clean with hospital-grade disinfectants and wear the appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) to limit the spread and exposure of potentially harmful viruses and germs.
“Feeling safe and comfortable when receiving care is vital in a healthcare setting,” Hobson added. “As patients, guests and staff members enter our doors each day, we want to ensure them that they will not find a better equipped and safer environment to receive care in.”
“I am extremely proud of each of our EVS team members,” said Terry Plunk, Director of Support Services. “The work they have done, and continue to do, is crucial in helping our organization control the virus and continue to provide safest environment for our patients and staff.”
This post was written by Magnolia Regional Health Center
