2024 EVS Department of the Year: Geisinger Bloomsburg Hospital

FROM LEFT: Displaying their department of the year award are Geisinger Bloomsburg Hospital environmental services leaders William Martz, EVS regional director of operations; Rebecca Stone, EVS operations manager II; Angela Talanca, intermediate system support specialist; Michael Brown, EVS senior director; and Eric Nowak, associate vice president for hospitality services.

Image courtesy of Geisinger Bloomsburg Hospital

The environmental services (EVS) departments of Geisinger hospitals must be doing many things right. In the past five years, various Geisinger EVS departments have won four Association for the Health Care Environment (AHE) Environmental Services Department of the Year Awards and earned one Certificate of Merit.

More winner profiles

500-plus beds winner: Orlando Regional Medical Center

250-499 beds winner: Munson Medical Center

In fact, this year’s winner in the 1-249 bed category — Geisinger Bloomsburg (Pa.) Hospital — earned the Certificate of Merit in last year’s competition.

“I think the main reason we have succeeded is that our staff does just an amazing job, truly,” says Michael Brown, senior director of hospitality services at Geisinger Bloomsburg. “They come in every day, and their focus is patient care. You don’t have to be clinical to have your focus be patient care. They know that we need to give the patient the best environment to allow the medical teams to help them recover from complex problems.”

Geisinger Bloomsburg Hospital’s EVS department efforts that impacted patient care in 2023 included an improvement in emergency department (ED) cleaning procedures, a change to floor maintenance and technology implementations. All of this was aided by improved communications with EVS staff.

ED cleaning

A specific EVS accomplishment that improved patient care was an initiative to take over the cleaning of ED patient rooms between patients, a task that had been handled by nurses. That effort reduced inpatient turnover times from 51.82 minutes in 2022 to 49.91 minutes in 2023.

The change was most pronounced during the first shift, when turnover times dropped from 56.40 minutes to 45.46 minutes. The improvement on the first shift was especially important given a hospitalwide initiative to discharge more patients during that shift.

Sally Eckart, EVS technician, conducting disinfection and cleaning of a patient overbed table during a discharge clean

Image courtesy of Geisinger Bloomsburg Hospital

Cleaning the ED rooms between shifts added 14,512 cleaning jobs during the year, but the extra work was handled without adding staff. Brown says this was achieved by improving communication and utilizing an electronic bed management system to ensure appropriate location staffing.

“Really, one of our biggest things was getting the staff to understand that the goal was not to give them more work; the goal was truly to give them more of an opportunity to impact the patient,” Brown says. “A lot of times our staff was already there in the ED, so it was a perfect setup. We just had to rework how we communicated. It’s worked out very well.”

Floor care success

Collaborating with vendors led to another one of Geisinger Bloomsburg Hospital’s EVS successes in 2023. Some of the hospital’s rubber flooring had lost its original coating over the previous decades of use, which meant staff had to strip and wax the floors to properly disinfect them, which in turn meant clinical staff had to stay off the floors for an extended time.

Linda Young, EVS team lead, conducting hallway high dusting of windowsills.

Image courtesy of Geisinger Bloomsburg Hospital

The solution to the problem was restoring the coating. Brown asked the flooring vendor to advise them on how to do that, and it turned out a coating that was already being used within the Geisinger system was ideal.

“We learned that the coating would act in the same way as the factory coating,” Brown says. “It wouldn’t necessarily only sit on top of the floor. It would also go into the floor just slightly, the same way the factory coating does. And, since then, we’ve had excellent success. I have multiple hospital sites with 20-plus-year-old rubber floors, and those rubber floors right now look maybe five years old at best.”

The result is that the floors can be quickly scrubbed, which allows the clinical staff to return more quickly.

“Now we don’t need those long periods of time for stripping and waxing; all we have to do is scrub,” Brown explains. “It’s been a huge success not just for us but also for the clinical staff because it’s helping them as well.”

Technology tips

Technology implementations also played a key role in the department’s success. In particular, Brown cites the secure texting and calling system. It allows for communications throughout the hospital with no fear of data breaches or patient confidentiality issues.

Mike Miller, EVS certified technician, conducting a floor maintenance program during a shift.

Image courtesy of Geisinger Bloomsburg Hospital

The texting and calling system also can integrate with other applications. For example, the department’s job assignment and tracking application works with it so that staff are notified immediately when a new task is assigned.

“The app allows us to automate jobs that our people need to take care of,” Brown says. “So, when anyone in the hospital puts something in, there’s a [notification] specifically sent to the person who it’s assigned to, and they automatically get it on the spot.”

Staff interaction

Texting and calling is a valuable communication tool, but Brown believes in the importance of more traditional communications as well.

For example, the department newsletter, The Clean Sweep, is published quarterly in print and digitally. It includes updates about the department, upcoming events, family recipes, awards and positive comments in reports from Press Ganey Associates in South Bend, Ind.

“It’s a form of communication for the staff that is professional but lighthearted,” Brown explains. “It is meant to be a fun read.”

Geisinger Bloomsburg Hospital’s environmental services team celebrates winning the Association for the Health Care Environment’s EVS Department of the Year Award in the 1-249 beds category with a commemorative photo shoot outside the hospital’s main entrance.

Image courtesy of Geisinger Bloomsburg Hospital

Brown says face-to-face connections with staff also are prioritized. He stresses that department leaders recognize that being visible to staff is an important way to show they care.

“We’ve made it a point to have true roundings with the goal and purpose of interacting with the staff,” Brown explains. “It’s not just to see the hospital and move on but to interact, to actually talk to them and ask them their opinions, include them as part of the team. It’s not complex. It’s not a big thing. They just want our time and our attention, to functionally listen to them with a purpose, not just hear them.”

The newsletter and staff interactions play an important role in retention, Brown believes. The department improved from a 60% retention rate in 2022 to 65% in 2023.

What it means

Even though Geisinger EVS departments are often on AHE awards lists, this win means a great deal to the Geisinger Bloomsburg Hospital’s EVS department.

“Last year, this site won the certificate of merit. Then, instead of backing off, they said, ‘We’re going to double down and take it to the next level.’ And it paid off,” Brown says. “It shows you who they are as a staff. It’s a smaller site with a very, very tightknit staff group. They take the patient experience and their satisfaction very seriously.” 

Ed Avis is a freelance writer based in Chicago.