Executive Housekeeping Today - January 2008 - (Page 4)

Hand-Held Computers (continued from previous page) must be provided with appropriate tools and training. While proper cleaning may appear to be obvious to each of us, it is actually not so simple. For example, did you know that, in some cases, a disinfectant must sit on a surface for up to three minutes in order to kill germs? The point is that improving performance requires tools and training. Hospitals who have migrated their internal QA programs onto hand-helds are seeing impressive increases in the performance of their personnel. These new systems allow supervisors to easily evaluate a large number of housekeepers, and understand their performance better. Marty Shafer, director of environmental and guest services at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, was one of the first healthcare administrators in North America to see the value of using automated hand-helds for Quality Assurance, “We use the hand-helds to collect lots of data quickly. That data then appears as meaningful reports, which have allowed us to improve our entire QA program.” In one example, automated trend processing uncovered the most common safety issue on job sites is improperly placed extension cords. This is generally seen as a low-priority tidiness issue, but when you think about it, trips and falls are one of the largest safety issues in any work environment. times the data. While lots of data is great, it is only as good as what you do with it. Death by Extension Cord? Keeping Construction Sites Tidy Keating Construction is a major construction company operating out of the Philadelphia area. In 2001, their safety director, John Schellenberg, spearheaded a drive to improve the Safety Program. Schellenberg sensed that they could improve their program by collecting more data and doing more with it. By moving his entire safety program onto hand-held computers, Schellenberg was able to give his safety team the right tools to dramatically increase the quality and quantity of data collected. The goal was to quadruple the productivity of the team of safety auditors. In reality, within weeks, they were collecting close to ten The huge amount of data, combined with automated trend processing, uncovered important facts that were not seen previously. For example, it was a surprise to all that the most common safety issue on job sites is improperly placed extension cords. This is generally seen as a low-priority tidiness issue; which sounds boring, but when you think about it, trips and falls are one of the largest safety issues in any work environment. Tripping on the 20th floor of a skyscraper with no exterior walls can easily become a fatality. By collecting significantly larger amounts of data in a structured format, Keating Construction was able to see what was really going on. By implementing better-targeted training programs, and following up more precisely, they were able to reduce safety problems and subsequently reduce insurance and operating costs. In the end, both Keating Construction and the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics used technology to dramatically improve their Quality Assurance systems. Both organizations were able to do this because their supervisors were free to collect large amounts of data easily. Since no one needed to waste time inputting and massaging that data, they were able to focus immediately on correcting the problems that had just been uncovered. W References 1 Committee to Reduce infection Deaths, www.Hospitalinfection. org 2 U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2004 Stephen Walsh is president of Walsh Mobile. He may be reached at stephen. walsh@walshmobile.com. For more information, please visit www.walshmobile.com. 4 Executive Housekeeping Today/January 2008 http://www.hospitalinfection.org http://www.hospitalinfection.org http://www.walshmobile.com http://www.walshmobile.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Executive Housekeeping Today - January 2008

Executive Housekeeping Today - January 2008 Contents Executive Corner How Hand-Held Computers Benefit Quality Assurance Programs Shining the Light on ATP Detection Frugal Housekeeper MRSA: Myth or Monster? The Impact of New Laundry Technology I.E.H.A.’s 41st Educational Conference and Convention Wrap-Up Board Briefing 2007 Audit Report The Green Scene 2007 International Housekeepers Week Celebrations! Inside the Industry Product Highlights Advertisers' Index Joint IEHA/ISSA Members New Members Calendar of Events Inside I.E.H.A. What I.E.H.A. Has Done For Me

Executive Housekeeping Today - January 2008

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