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

[passing thru]

10 minutes ???

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 !!

[DidiRN]

Whenever I have a patient who's been there for a while, I'm always tempted, and alot of the times I actually do this, to take one of those disinfecting sprays and a cloth and just wipe down the bedrails, part of the bed, the bedside monitor, IV pump, etc. I know it's not really my job to do that, but I always wonder if that isn't the real source of infection also, not only just poor handwashing.I don't think these things are cleaned every day, and sometimes I just get the urge to do it. And nope, I'm not a clean freak by far.

[LisaRn21]

The hospital I work at acctually went into a VRE room after the patient was discarged and cutured things...it was amazing where the VRE was. It was found everywhere from the Bed, to the closet, to the hangers, to the bathroom, and even on the curtains and the chart (which isn't even kept in the room!!). After housekeeping cleaned we recultrued. ....guess what....almost everyhting was still infected!! Now....what if we put a fresh liver or kidney transplant in there....what are the chances he/she will develop it!! i think housekeeping should be one of the last places hospitals cut .. its discusting...(we also cultured the phones and counters and nurses station....you don't want to know!! lol its acctually haning in our conference room to remind us to wash hands and wipe stuff down when we have a free minute!

[Nurse-To-Be-Joy]

I worked in a hospial as a "team associate." That meant I did housekeeping, transportation of patients to various tests, took discharged patients out to their cars, handed out/picked up meal trays, and helped nurses and CAs with various nursing tasks.

There were not enough of us on the floor to do this job as well as what was needed. We had to clean all of our rooms, clean the rooms of discharged patients, clean nursing stations, clean the medicine/refrigerator areas, and clean the halls and public bathrooms.

In the meantime, we would have all of our nurses calling us to help with a certain patient... they need to be moved, sent to a test, taken outside, taken to the ICU, sat with because they were getting violent or confused, and on and on.

Also... don't forget getting breakfast, lunch, and diner trays all passed out immediately. Oh, and don't forget that we have to feed the patients, too, that can't feed themselves. In about an hour, then we have to pick up those trays and record their intake. God forbid we let them sit longer than that. It looks dirty and nurses, patients, and family members hate it.

Hopefully, someone won't die because that will mean 2 trips to the morgue as well.

So... this is why the hospital where I live is pretty dirty. There is not enough people to do this job. And I do find it pretty gross that I would go from cleaning a room where someone vomited or peed or pooped or bled all over the floor to passing out the food trays. I would never want to be a patient there.

[passing thru]

I HAVE BEEN READING ABOUT THIS VERY TOPIC ON SOME OTHER SITES.

AND, STILL, EVERYTHING WE READ SAYS IT IS US NURSES WHO AREN'T WASHING OUR HANDS WHO ARE CAUSING THE NOSOCOMIAL INFECTIONS ! !

HOUSEKEEPING USED TO CLEAN THE NURSES STATION....

WHEN IS THE LAST TIME SOMEONE WIPED DOWN YOUR PHONE, KEYBOARD , OR COUNTERTOPS ??

THE TOILETS ARE THE WORSE... IMHO.

ANYONE SEEN ANYTHING GROSS LATELY?

oR A TREND OF INFECTIONS

INFECTION AREAS IN YOUR HOSPITAL?

IT'S THERE..... WE SIMPLY HAVE TO PAUSE AND THINK.... CONNECT

THE DOTS..... OBSERVE THE DOCS ............STAFF.................

[Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN]

No, i've not seen anything gross lately, but i won't be replying to this thread anymore.

[hipab4hands]

Our workplace is filthy. I've had 2 allergic reactions there , the docs thinks its from dust or other substances there.

Management insists the facility is clean. However, there is always a coating of dust over everything. The ceiling tiles have been covered with some yucky black stuff.

The Housekeepers do their best, but they have a limited time to complete their tasks and can't possibily be through.

[Bipley]

No, i've not seen anything gross lately, but i won't be replying to this thread anymore.

Ho hum.

[Mimi2RN, ASN, RN]

I agree, housekeepers are overworked and underpaid.

That being said, most nights we don't see hide nor hair of a housekeeper to empty trash and laundry. If one shows up, it's frequently after 4 am. We've had nurses, supervisors, and even a doctor emptying the trash.

We get a quicker response if we call to have someone clean one of our quiet rooms when we move a baby out, than for basic pick-up.

The floors haven't been stripped for over a year, as we alway have patients, and they can't move us anywhere for 12 hours. That's just our unit, as the hallways are cleaned frequently, and patient rooms do get the floors stripped and waxed occasionally. I think the carpets on the main floor are shampooed every night!

[SmilingBluEyes]

Ho hum.

not necessary. please keep things friendly here.

[MadisonsMomRN, BSN, RN]

This is such a big issue with me. You would think that hospitals, etc would be more stringent with the infection control and cleaning.

Housekeeping DOES NOT do a good job in the rehab hospital I work at.

MRSA, VRE, and all those other nasty bugs are really getting bad.

[passing thru]

There was a talk-radio show on a couple of days ago. One of the docs said there are > 400,000 deaths in the U.S. annually due to nosocomial infections. I plan to research that on the computer when I get off here... research that statistic.

Anyway, one of the other docs said he thought that was a high number, and his opinion was: "it must be the smaller, rural hospitals that are experiencing the nosocomial infections in high numbers, as the hospitals here in Houston all have the latest methods (METHODS?) ha ha) for maintaining clean hospitals."

I wanted to call in.........................but couldn't.... didn't............if I want to keep my job.