Is your hospital DIRTY ??? Does housekeeping clean the empty room and bath in

Nurses General Nursing

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There was a big article in last Sundays' Houston Chronicle about the nationwide problem with nosocomial infections in hospitals............ (the infections you get when you went into the hospital for something else ! ) And 100,000 people - Americans - die from annually.

Our unit has LOTS OF VRE, MRSA, etc., etc.,

Lots of surgical wounds with infections....

Naturally, .....in the article, the nurses were responsible. !

Naturally, the article said MORE handwashing by the nurses would diminish or cure the problem.

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha !!!!

I frequently observe and time the house keeping dept. folks when they enter a discharged patients' room to clean it .... it takes them 10 minutes !!

I'm not blaming them ......

MANAGEMENT has cut housekeepings' budget, their staff, their time to clean a room - - bed -floor -bathroom - - to ten minutes.... !!!!!!!!!!!!!

(20 years ago it was 30 minutes for each room.)

Listen to this, ....................

last April, the CEO of my hospital held his annual meetings with the staff. these are held in small groups of about 30 employees, until all employees have had their chance to attend the meetings.

Well, the PURPOSE of these annual meetings is so us staff peons can tell the big shots what's bugging us !!

(no management folks attend.)

We are encouraged '"" TO UNLOAD - SPEAK UP - TELL THE BIG BOSS WHAT'S BUGGING US"", AND HE GUARANTEEES no recriminations.... (what's said in the meeting stays there.)

Well, REPEATEDLY, the # 1 big problem the employees complained about ??

""The hospital is DIRTY . ""

That was the very words used and examples given by many many employees.

The CEO seemed shocked, seemed rather surprised to hear this as the foremost problem seen by employees.

Of course he promised to check into it and TAKE ACTION !

It is nearly August now, the hospital is still dirty...

It isn't obvious dirt................. if you walked onto my unit, you would not notice obvious dirt.............................

The place simply isn't cleaned as it should be... although every day there's a guy pushing a noisy wax-buffer machine down the halls.

I'm thinking about sending this to the newspaper.

And, yeah, all those doorknobs, toilet seats, computer keyboards, medication carts, phones , desktops, pt. beds and bed rails, pillows, i.v. poles, feeding pump poles, med cart tops, etc., etc, and pt room floors - - (ever see the bottom of a wastebasket?)

my hospital is filthy and

if I'm admitted I'm taking my own sanitizors.

Too bad the article dumped the blame on us nurses...............

I've had red cracked hands for 20 years....

I need help from housekeeping and management, not MORE handwashing.

The "public " is watching US when they come into the hospitals,

hell, I'm the cleanest thing they will encounter during their stay !!

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Specializes in ICU, ER, HH, NICU, now FNP.

When I see grunge lodged into the O2 outlets in the walls, tile in the bathrooms that has not been stripped in YEARS and blood spatters on baseboards...

Oh you are SO right on!

The last hospital I worked at hired extra housekeepers prior to teh JCAHO visit and Magnet visits.

Guess what happend to them all after the surveys were done? Gone...laid off...dissapeared.

Who cares if the carpets are clean when a patient cant walk in the bathroom barefoot for fear of catching something?

Out of all the thigns that bothered me the most, that was the biggest thing of all. Sheer Filth. And LOTS of it.

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Specializes in ICU, ER, HH, NICU, now FNP.

You really SHOULD write a letter to the editor...call the investigative news channel etc and give them the lowdown, and tell them to find out how many housekeepers per patient day or per patient bed are employed there....

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It's disgusting, isn't it?

I have to say at the last hospital I worked it, it was pretty bad. At the hospital where I did my clinicals, the place was filthy.

Our current ED tends to be very dusty, but some JCHAO folks were walkint through and said ours was the cleanest ED they've ever seen. Granted, our housekeepers do a pretty good job, but it could be better.

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Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.

Housekeeping is typically the first dept to get cut.

And the ones that weren't cut are given three times the work to do, and catch all heck for not getting it done in 8 hours. A constant feeling that you can't do anything right.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, ER, L&D, ICU, OR, Educator.

Ours is dirty too. I've often thought that it would be very interesting to culture the tub or shower room...or how about the jacuzzi in the birthing room?

ISH!

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I started working in a hospital as a housekeeper in the late eighties. At that time, I would be assigned for the entire 8hr shift in one area. I took pride in the job I did. All patient floors were cleaned, all garbages emptied twice, all stock check & refilled (soap, paper towels, TP), all furniture wiped with disinfectant, all bathrooms on the unit cleaned, etc. To sum it up every room and the nursing station was cleaned and I mean cleaned. Also I was able to work around/with the nursing staff.

After being an RPN and then becoming an RN over the next ten years, I noticed an appalling changed in how housekeeping was done.

Some intellectual giant had come up with a computer program that had calculated how long it took a housekeeper to perform a specific task, for instance, how long it took to wash a floor. Based on more findings from the genius, it was determined that it was not necessary to wash each floor every day nor was it necessary to disinfect all furniture each day. Apparently it was not necessary to do a lot of things each day. Needless to say this provided the "Enviromental Service" dept. an excuse to cut back on housekeepers. The remaining housekeepers had specific floors, bathrooms, etc to clean within an alotted time frame. Not all of their assigned duties were on the same unit, for instance, they may wash 2 floors on a unit on the 3rd floor and then trek on up to the 4th floor to do 2 more floors. :rotfl: :smackingf Unfortunately have been "washed" into a corner by housekeepers who due to their "time frame" could not work around/with me.

The real kicker is now the housekeeping staff hands out dietary trays to patients, after having cleaned a few things we are all familiar with. They just had them don a plastic apron and gloves, and of course they had a specified time frame in which to complete this task.

I now work at a different hospital, and housekeeping isn't any better. I have on numerous occasions went to wash my hands at a sink only to find no paper towels or soap or both. :angryfire I have figured out a way to jimmy the paper towel dispenser to replace paper towels, but I'm still working on figuring out the soap dispenser. I'm also careful where I step so that the "TEENAGE MUTANT DUST BUNNIES" don't bite my toes off.

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Yep. Both the bathroom floor and the shower floor. Both were ceramic tile, and the grout was totally disgusting! Yikes.

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Specializes in Hospice specialty.

I think my hospital is pretty clean. The rooms take 30-45 minutes to clean after a patient is discharged and each day the room has a quick 10 minute cleaning while the patient is in the room. They also clean the hallways, including the pulldowns, light switches, every little thing. The only thing I do see that needs more cleaning is our laptops. I think I have only see one other nurse wipe hers down.

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Specializes in ICU, ER, HH, NICU, now FNP.
I think my hospital is pretty clean. The rooms take 30-45 minutes to clean after a patient is discharged and each day the room has a quick 10 minute cleaning while the patient is in the room. They also clean the hallways, including the pulldowns, light switches, every little thing. The only thing I do see that needs more cleaning is our laptops. I think I have only see one other nurse wipe hers down.

I wanna work where you work!!!!!!!!

You know - housekeeping has got to be some of the least expensive staff in terms of per person salaries - and if it keeps patients from getting more nosicomial infections, keeps the hard to come by staff happy and impresses patients, then why skimp?? You cant tell me it costs less for the hospital to eat several cases of MRSA a year than it does to hire housekeepers!

When I had my exit interview, that was my major complaint - not enough housekeepers to go around...

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Ortho.

I challenge everyone,, if they want to find grub and gunk to look on conference room doors, utility room doors,etc, just above the doorknobs that people DONT use. The hallway handrails. Months and months of grime that noone in housekeeping EVER cleans up. I dont know about anyone elses facility, but i think our door edges are a couple dozen shades darker than they were intended. If it doesnt wipe off with one swoosh of the swiffer-wet it stays. Take a culture, a guarenteed microbial soup.

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Specializes in Cardiac,ICU,.
Ours is dirty too. I've often thought that it would be very interesting to culture the tub or shower room...or how about the jacuzzi in the birthing room?

ISH!

I have also thought about culturing the showers. I don't think the last place I did my clinicals in school had ever cleaned them. As a matter of fact they had part of it using it for storage. But as soon as soon as it was inspection time boy were they on things. It really makes me mad, there are so many people already sick and they come into a facility to get well and end up sicker and nobody knows why. Well at this place anyways.

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