Housekeeping role called out in article series

As part of it's "The Hospital" series, The Globe and Mail's photographer Kevin Van Paassen spent hours at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, Ontario, capturing the drama and the routine of the institution, according to The Globe and Mail website. One gallery features images of Sunnybrook environmental services workers. A related story 'The new germ warfare" also focuses on the role of housekeeping.

From "The new germ warfare:" 

"After the mattress is clean, the two housekeepers still have to scrub the bathroom, disinfect all of the surfaces in the room and mop the floor before the next patient is allowed in. If one bed rail isn’t properly wiped down, if every millimetre of a toilet seat isn’t disinfected, if a TV remote control isn’t cleaned with industrial-strength chemicals, the result can be a catastrophic outbreak of antibiotic-resistant bacteria that can cripple an entire department and kill the vulnerable patients in its path."

View the photo gallery, read the accompanying article and check out the video with cleaning tips.