STANDARD THINKING MAY OVERLOOK KEY EVS REALITIES

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INTRODUCTION:

Getting the most out of your human resources, as close to 100% productivity as possible.

When it comes to hos­pi­tal Envi­ron­men­tal Ser­vices depart­ments, one of the most impor­tant and fre­quent top­ics is staffing lev­els and pro­duc­tiv­i­ty. Call­ing the top­ic “chal­leng­ing” is an under­state­ment.

Pro­duc­tiv­i­ty is often con­sid­ered most­ly a func­tion of patient cen­sus. Patient-cen­sus staffing mod­els may be well suit­ed to clin­i­cal func­tions, where the work is patient-cen­tric. How­ev­er, those mod­els over­look oth­er EVS real­i­ties in your facil­i­ty. The total amount of clean­able space in a hos­pi­tal that needs to be cleaned, ster­il­ized, and kept safe isn’t based sole­ly on the num­ber of patients in beds. Because, while patients may come and go, the facil­i­ty does not.

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There’s the best way to answer questions about EVS productivity. 

While cal­cu­lat­ing pro­duc­tiv­i­ty may not be the respon­si­bil­i­ty of the EVS depart­ment head, it’s a cer­tain­ty that they will be asked to max­i­mize it. EVS man­agers are asked two ques­tions fre­quent­ly:

• How do you adjust staffing amid fluc­tu­a­tions in the cen­sus?
• How do you effec­tive­ly cov­er high-cen­sus days AND main­tain pro­duc­tiv­i­ty on low-cen­sus days?

Below are three charts that shape the con­ver­sa­tion and illus­trate how EVS man­agers max­i­mize pro­duc­tiv­i­ty. One of the charts is a stan­dard, quick mis­per­cep­tion that is easy to slip into, espe­cial­ly for those ask­ing the ques­tions from out­side the depart­ment. One chart is bet­ter. And the last chart shows the best way to view pro­duc­tiv­i­ty.

CHART #1 — Census Centric

Not the best way to look at the entire facility (a Bad model, even).

The Issue: The chart over­looks impor­tant real­i­ties of Envi­ron­men­tal Ser­vices man­age­ment, name­ly, clean­ing not dri­ven by cen­sus. These are spaces or activ­i­ties in health­care facil­i­ties where clean­ing require­ments do not fluc­tu­ate with the dai­ly cen­sus. Exam­ples include:

•Emer­gency • OR • Radi­ol­o­gy • Labor & Deliv­ery

• Lock-in Posi­tions • Trash & Linen Dis­rup­tion

CHART #2 — Add Cleaning Not Driven By Census

A Better model for staffing.

This chart adds clean­ing not dri­ven by cen­sus as a con­stant need. This addi­tion increas­es accu­ra­cy, because EVS staffing lev­els are not based sole­ly on patient cen­sus.

A Remain­ing Issue: While required staffing lev­els are more accu­rate­ly illus­trat­ed in the chart, the dai­ly demand still fluc­tu­ates. The real­i­ty of fluc­tu­at­ing dai­ly staffing sched­ules is a detri­men­tal effect on staff morale. Con­sis­tent work sched­ules pro­vide bet­ter oppor­tu­ni­ties for EVS tech­ni­cians to sup­port their fam­i­lies and build loy­al­ty for the employ­er. If an employ­er can’t pro­vide con­sis­ten­cy, many employ­ees feel oblig­ed to seek sta­ble work sched­ules else­where.

CHART #3 — Add Cleaning Not Driven By Census and Periodic (Project) Work

The Best model for staffing.

While charts #1 and #2 take into account patient cen­sus and clean­ing not dri­ven by cen­sus, they do not con­sid­er a third impor­tant EVS need: peri­od­ic (project) work.

A Nat­ur­al Solu­tion: It’s like­ly your EVS depart­ment is already flex­ing project work sched­ules to make the best use of staff for cov­er­ing peri­od­ic work, or project work.

Chart #3 paints the pic­ture of how peri­od­ic work fits into dai­ly staffing to fill the extra time that’s left when cen­sus and clean­ing not dri­ven by cen­sus are lighter. Rather than send staff home, peri­od­ic work (which is less time sen­si­tive, yet equal­ly impor­tant) can be assigned to fill the extra time capac­i­ty.

Con­sis­tent dai­ly total clean­ing require­ments main­tain clean­ing pro­duc­tiv­i­ty lev­els while pro­vid­ing a more con­sis­tent work sched­ule for EVS staff.