The environmental services team atJane Phillips Medical Center/St. John Health System, Bartlesville, Okla., is the 2018 Environmental Services Department of the Year Winner in the 1-249 bed category. ES leaders take small groups of staff through each room, teaching the 10-step cleaning process and discussing standards, safety, value and goals., according to an article on the Health Facilities Management website.

The team-cleaning approach and a rigorous infection-control protocol, has resulted in steadily climbing HCAHPS scores and declining hospital-acquired infection rates. In 2017, the ES department’s HCAHPS score for cleanliness was 86.4 compared with the national average of 75 percent and the state average of 76. The department’s Clostridium difficile rate decreased from 5.19 in 2015 to 2.31 in 2017.

Two years ago, a two-person team-cleaning approach for the three main patient care floors was implemented. The team enters each room three times a day, doing a full-room clean in the morning, returning for touch-ups in the afternoon and evening. When the staff member leaves, he or she tells the patient when to expect the next cleaning.

The ES leaders also created an on-site learning lab to train housekeepers in cleaning standards and processes in a mock patient-room setting to teach the 10-step process.

Read the article.