Staffing is an environmental services (ES) department's largest expense, and with value-based purchasing's emphasis on HCAHPS scores in determining reimbursements, the ES staffing equation can impact the hospital bottom line, according to an article on the Health Facilities Management website.

Too many ES departments base their staffing on nonempirical data and information. They rely on employee feedback, the managers’ gut feelings for workload, an end users’ demand for availability or other non-value-based criteria, the article said.

The understanding of staffing capacities in ES is based on what constitutes the workload of the staff. According to the aricle, there are four factors that need to be addressed:

• Cleanable square footage 

• Frequency of cleaning

• Lock-in areas — where a housekeeper is assigned for a length of time regardless of square footage or frequency 

• Space classification

These are the core workload standards. The four categories should be incorporated into the process of building a workload time study and functioning schedules.

Read the article.