Feces on curtains for several days, bedside tables sticky with spilled juice, uncleaned IV poles and computer equipment. These are some of the things a new study has uncovered at Vancouver’s St. Paul’s hospital, six months after cleaning was contracted out.
The study, Falling Standards, Rising Risks, was produced by the Hospital Employees Union, the BC Nurses Union and the Health Sciences Association.
The report describes what comes with over-worked, poorly-trained workers who have no direct working relationship with either hospital staff or the infection control department.
“This report shows unacceptable cleaning practices continued to exist six months after St. Paul’s housekeeping services were handed over to Aramark,” says HEU acting secretary business manager Zorica Bosancic.
The full study is at http://www.heu.org/2004/falling_standards_rising_risks.pdf