Horizon Health cleaning practices change after CBC investigation

The cleaning routine has changed at Saint John Regional Hospital in the wake of a CBC News investigation showing some surfaces in high-traffic areas of two Horizon Health hospitals were not wiped clean of an ultraviolet light-reactive gel after 24 hours, and in some cases, seven days or more.

Cleaners at Saint John Regional follow atight schedule in the run of a day, including in some cases, delivering meals. They usually have around 20 minutes to clean a room, around 45 minutes if it is after someone has been discharged and everyone is waiting to get another patient in.

The hospital has 450 beds and 150 cleaning staff. Gisele Harris is one of them. It's a job she has been doing for 14 years. She is used to the visual audit which includes a supervisor going through a checklist to make sure everything looks in order.

• Horizon Hospital germ swabs identify problem areas
• Horizon hospitals flunk CBC News cleanliness test

What is new is having supervisor Debra Kay run a cotton swab type device around where she cleaned. It's called an ATP test. It measures the organic residue left on the surface, which can be anything from food to spit.

Only two or three rooms are tested a day.

Hospital officials say the test is being usedas a teaching tool that is pushing staff to look at practices and products.

After repeated requests, Horizon Health invited CBC to film a cleaning, and the procedures they say are now a daily occurrence.

Staff disappointed

The head of environment services Roy Hess saidthe CBC report disappointed staff and it was time to show what they have been doing since November to improve cleanliness.

"We're looking at the cleaning tools the staff has, we're looking at the disinfectants they use, even the rags they use, how they're being used," Hess said. "By focusing on those things, we're demonstrating that things are improving that much more."

Hess saideventually there will be enough data to see trends highlighting problem areas.

"Whether it was the cleaning rags, or how things are being cleaned by the staff, how the actual technique they use, we have actually modified down to that level just how those things are done," he said.

Steve Savoie, wholeadsHorizon's staff training on the swab tests, saidmore accurate feedback gives workers something else.

"Everyone wants to do good, so if their scores are not so good, the next time, they're going to make sure their score is good. Just that," he said.

Savoie lead the cleanup of Maple Leaf Foods after its Listeria outbreak. He saidit's a two-year processto reach the cleanliness standards the companynow sustains.

Sustaining, he says, is going to be one of the biggest challenges.

Horizon says standardizing the visual audits and performing over 2000 ATP swabs have improved cleanliness so far.

They now plan to roll them out into the more public areas, namely the areas that didn't do so well in the CBC gel test.