By Healthcare Facilities Today

Health Facilities Management magazine recently named Geisinger Medical System the Environmental Services  (ES) Department of the Year

According to the article in the magazine's September issue, Geisinger, which serves about 2.6 million residents of northeastern and central Pennsylvania, has long been recognized as one of the more innovative care delivery systems nationally. 

Geisinger was lauded for focusing on improving quality, satisfaction and efficiency by redesigning and re-engineering care delivery. At Geisinger Medical Center, the system's main campus in Danville, the ES team employs a "bundled cleaning" approach to patient rooms.

ES associates follow a six-step cleaning process with checklists for patient rooms. Every cleaning cart has visual and text charts of 14 high-touch points that need to be cleaned as well as infection control checklists for daily cleans, discharges and isolation rooms. Supervisors use fluorescent marking gel and ultraviolet light to measure cleaning thoroughness of the high-touch points, the article said

This bundled cleaning approach has become part of GMC's culture, the article said. The ES team has a consistently high success rate: More than 90 percent of GMC's rooms are 100 percent compliant for thoroughly cleaning all 14 high-touch points, ES department data from 2012 show.

Read the article.