A simple gesture at St. George Regional Hospital has helped the environmental services (EVS) team in a big way. Caregivers from the plant operations team at the hospital recently offered to pitch in to help EVS while because they are short-staffed.
“Even though we’re incredibly busy, one of the things the pandemic has taught us is we’re all in this together,” says Michael Cummings, facility supervisor, who came up with the idea to offer help, along with George McGee, facility manager. “We’ve seen the value of helping other departments and having great working relationships with each other. We saw a need and decided to do something about it.”
Michael and George discussed the idea and decided their team of caregivers were willing to empty trash, clean floors, or do whatever they could to help where needed. They reached out to Andy Stephens, EVS manager, to ask what they could do. Andy determined the EVS team could use help emptying trash in the nursing units, which didn’t require extra training.
Now every morning after huddle, the plant operations team collect and empty the big trash bins in the soiled utility rooms on the nursing units. It takes them about an hour as they move through the west tower, east tower, and OR. Previously, that job had been done by one custodian who’d been working overtime and couldn’t keep up with the demand.
“This is a rare thing to do,” says Andy. “This team came to me. I never said anything to them. They’d noticed we were short-staffed and that it’s put a burden on us. Now we know this area is always covered.”
The trash collection is more demanding these days due to the extra trash generated by the PPE, says Andy.
“We have so many COVID-19 patients, and our caregivers produce a lot of extra trash with the PPE,” he says. “It’s a long process to gather all of it and a massive undertaking, so this help is amazing. It seems simple, but it means a lot to us.”
“I appreciate that we all work together very well,” says Michael. “Our administrative team often reaches out to us to let us know how well we’re doing, and we wanted to give back to our facility. It keeps us happy and going in this difficult time.”
“This makes our hospital a better place,” Andy says. “It makes it feel like a safe place because you know people have your back. Instead of someone being mad the job isn’t done, you realize people are actually worried about you and want to help.”
Mitch Cloward, administrator at St. George Regional Hospital, says, “Thank you for the incredible example of servant leadership and compassion for the hospital team as a whole.”
Michael and George would especially like to thank maintenance engineers, Paul Gill, Rick Bishop, Aaron Kurek, Bryan Sanchez, Tyler Bingham, Clint Harold, Cory Jenkins, and Von Hansen, and equipment systems specialists Anthony Allen and Mitch Henderson.