Working hard to keep our hospitals and clinics safe
Environmental services staff works 24/7 to keep Geisinger hospitals and clinics safe and clean. Here’s an inside glimpse of a day’s work for our EVS team.
Geisinger’s environmental services (EVS) team has been working non-stop to combat the spread of COVID-19. By working day-in and day-out, the EVS team helps keep our facilities clean and safe for every patient, visitor and employee who sets foot in our hospitals and clinics.
EVS teams play a critical role in fighting COVID-19
At Geisinger Lewistown Hospital, it’s no different. The hospital’s EVS team works on the front lines, cleaning and disinfecting every square inch of the facility, including the rooms of patients who are positive with COVID-19.
“Our staff is providing extra effort daily as they clean operating rooms, lobbies, clinics, hallways… the list goes on,” says Janie Welshans, EVS supervisor at Geisinger Lewistown Hospital. “Some patient rooms require changing curtains and washing walls. But the task is not as simple as that. It requires detailed cleaning.”
Today, EVS employees can become certified healthcare environmental services technicians. Many of the EVS staff at Geisinger have taken that extra step and are credentialed through the American Hospital Association. “Staff attend classes and then must pass a required exam for this certification,” says Ms. Welshans. “They are then retested every 3 years.”
EVS role in infection control
“This department plays a very important role in infection control,” says Ms. Welshans. For example, Mary Hayes and Amber Baker are certified environmental services technicians at the Lewistown hospital. On this particular day, they were cleaning an entrance at the hospital. Ms. Hayes and Ms. Baker swept and mopped the floors, disinfected all surfaces, moved items to clean under them, emptied trash cans and made sure everything was safe.
“The entire department consistently does their best every day and works as a team. We can count on their professional approach and courtesy to all patients, staff and co-workers,” says Ms. Welshans. “We treat all our patients and visitors as guests.”
Video: EVS at Geisinger Community Medical Center
This level of care, detail and hard work is happening at Geisinger clinics and hospitals throughout our communities. Watch the video below to take an inside look at a typical day for the EVS team at Geisinger Community Medical Center in Scranton.
