Hospital ES Professional is a Guardian of Infection Control, Too

There is a nice profile in a regional newspaper, the Niagara Falls Review, in Ontario, Canada, about a healthcare environmental services worker who has a sharp eye for infection control compliance and serves as a significant patient advocate.

In the article, "Cleaning staff feel the pressure of public expectation to keep hospitals clean," reporter Shawn Jeffords, writes about Cherie Bernard, a hospital cleaner and hospitality service aide at Greater Niagara General Hospital in Niagara Falls who had asked a visitor to don a gown and gloves while visiting his friend who was in isolation for Clostridium difficile. The hospital has recently endured a significant C. diff outbreak in which 36 patients had died. Despite repeated requests to don personal protective equipment, the visitor ignored the rules and Bernard persisted. She was yelled at by the visitor, who looked down on her role as a cleaner. As Jeffords writes, "It wasn't the first time. Bernard has cleaned at the hospital for 23 years, spending the last five in the hectic Niagara Falls ER. Despite her experience, she still has to deal with people who look at her role and scoff."

According to Jeffords, Bernard said, "I've been degraded ... (and told) I'm only a housekeeper and I don't have the ability or right to tell visitors to put on their personal protective equipment. That's where the frustration comes from." Jeffords continues, "Housekeeping staff throughout the Niagara Health System are a vital part of the agency's strategy to contain and eliminate the deadly outbreak. Not only are they relied upon to quickly clean up areas which house sick patients exhibiting symptoms, they are also asked to educate all visitors about how to protect themselves from the deadly bacteria. Bernard said that increasingly, staff feel like they can't do it alone. As the outbreak has dragged on at St. Catharines General Hospital (it was declared over in Niagara Falls and Welland) and community anger has been directed at hospital employees, they're trying to explain that patients and their families have a role to play in halting the spread of the illness."

To read the entire article, CLICK HERE.