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  Currently
the Housekeeping Department employs approximately 135 full
and part time cleaning staff which are responsible for maintaining
the cleanliness of over 680,000 square feet, providing 24
hour, 7 days a week service. Our staff is dedicated in providing
a clean, safe environment for patients, visitors, staff and
volunteers. Our department has successfully achieved the challenges
the new Health Sciences Centre has presented. We have maintained
the same high level of cleanliness and quality of service
the community has come to expect from our team.
The Housekeeping Department works closely with many other
departments within the Health Science Centre. Communication
with the Infection Control Department is imperative, as many
viruses and micro organisms can be transmitted through the
environment. The departmental Quality Assurance Program assists
in ensuring proper techniques and policies/procedures are
current, effective and being practiced by the staff. This
program is regularly reviewed and revised to meet the needs
of the constant changes. The QAP (quality control program)
monitors the cleanliness of most areas within the Health Sciences
Centre, focusing the attention on patient areas and critical/immune
compromised areas. Supervisors perform QA checks at set intervals
seeing that predetermined standards are maintained, at or
above specific benchmarks on a continuous basis.
New products, techniques and technologies are always being
reviewed and tested for possible implementation at TBRHSC
to aid our staff in providing the highest level of service
and quality. New, more efficient equipment has been purchased
to provide our staff with time to provide enhanced coverage
in many areas and to implement a new floor-care program. Some
of this equipment includes ride-on scrubbers, micro fibre
mopping systems and dusters and the ESA Unit (external steam
agitation unit for destruction of biomedical waste).
 The
Health Sciences Centre staff participate in a comprehensive
recycling program, that includes cardboard, plastics, glass,
pop and food cans, batteries, kitchen grease, electronic equipment,
steel and metal items as well as fine and news print paper.
The volumes of recycled product being diverted from landfill
are something that our staff is proud of. The Health Sciences
Centre is a founding member of the Zero Waste Action Team
(ZWAT), which is a committee
of local leaders in our city that have worked for years in
reducing the volumes of recyclable products from going to
landfill within the institutional, commercial and industrial
sectors. As an example, we estimate that we will recycle over
200,000 lbs of cardboard, treat over 100,000 lbs of biomedical
waste on site or shred and recycling over 95,000 lbs of confidential
materials on site in 2004/05.
The volume of work completed by the Housekeeping Department
within a year can only be described as immense. Did you know
that during the last year, our staff cleaned over 19,714 beds
from either discharged or transferred patients? And this number
only includes the actual patient beds on the wards. It doesn’t
even include the beds or stretchers cleaned in our Emergency,
Labour and Delivery, Operating Rooms, Recovery Rooms or Day
Surgery, which are used on a daily basis.
A Supervisor or In Charge staff can be contacted 24 hours per day –
7 days per week by pager.
Contact Switchboard - 684-6000 - and
they will contact them and direct your call.
Supervisors:
Linda Beck
Sandy Brooks
Nick Cavezza
Judy Maunula
Donna Bernst
Housekeeping Receptionist
Phone: (807) 684-6199
Fax: (807) 684-4732
Randy Mehagan
Manager Housekeeping
Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre
980 Oliver Road
Thunder Bay, Ontario
P7B 6V4
Email: mehaganr@tbh.net
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