Hospitals get poor marks for cleaning

By Dan Hilborn
Published June 5, 2005


Officials in the Fraser Health Authority are applauding an independent audit that gives a passing grade to the housekeeping services in its hospitals and residential care facilities.

But the report, released Thursday, reveals that overall standards at Burnaby and Royal Columbian hospitals and Queens Park care centre fall below the 85 per cent 'benchmark standard'.

"All of the critical areas, like operating rooms, were above the standard. That is extremely important and it has to be reassuring," said Don Bower, spokesperson for the local health authority that has responsibility for 14 hospitals and care facilities between Burnaby and Hope. "While we will focus on the challenges we face, overall, you have to be happy with the results."

According to the audit, conducted by Vancouver's Westech Systems FM Inc. between March 1 and May 31 this year, three-quarters of B.C.'s hospitals and residential care facilities scored 85 per cent or higher. Based on its findings, Westech concluded that hospitals and care facilities across the province "displayed a level of cleanliness that was within acceptable standards."

The audit looked at cleanliness levels in 160 hospitals and residential care facilities in B.C. Region-by-region, the Interior Health Authority had the highest marks with a 90.36 per cent average, followed by Northern Health at 88.43 per cent, Vancouver Coastal at 87.64 per cent, Fraser Health at 86.14 per cent, the provincial authority at 85.22 per cent and Vancouver Island at 84.46 per cent.

Of the 14 facilities reviewed within Fraser Health, Burnaby Hospital received the lowest mark of 79.69 per cent. Substandard scores were also noted at Langley Memorial (80.51), Peace Arch (81.35), MSA (82.49) and Royal Columbian Hospital (83.16). The highest marks in the region went to Fraser Canyon Hospital in Hope (95.04 per cent) and Delta Hospital (92.33).

Despite substandard scores at eight of the 14 sites in the region, Bower said the public can continue to have confidence in the cleanliness levels at Fraser Health facilities.

"There is absolutely nothing to be concerned about," he said. "Bear in mind that the release says that all the highly critical areas across the province are above the 85 per cent mark, and that includes Burnaby."

But Margi Blamey of the Hospital Employees Union said the audit report vindicates union claims that contracting out lowers the quality of service in public health facilities.

"What the report is clear on is that the two health authorities that have not contracted out their housekeeping services came in first and second. the interior and northern region still do their housekeeping in-house. The other thing it shows is that some of the bigger facilities are having a tougher time than the smaller facilities."

While Blamey is pleased to see the auditors used what they described as "international best standards" to measure cleanliness levels in B.C. hospitals, she noted that the HEU has still not been included in the audit process.

"Any province-wide audit has to ask what the reasons behind the problem are," she said., "In our opinion that includes inadequate staffing, heavy workloads, insufficient training, poor communication and a lack of onsite supervision.

Blamey said the union needs to know staffing levels inside the hospitals before it came make a recommendation on how best to improve the housekeeping services, however, she noted that getting the union involved in the audit process would be a good start.

"We need to know what (the staffing levels) are," Blamey said. "We also know that communication is a key problem. That was in the Cochrane report for Surrey Memorial Hospital where they found the whole link between infection control and procedures on the ground were broken.

"But even simply asking the workers how to improve the system would be great."

Blamey noted that 360 privatized housekeeping workers at a variety of facilities, including Burnaby, RCH, Queen's Park and Fellburn hospitals, recently learned that they will become members of the HEU, after the Labour Relations Board released the results of their year-old union affiliation votes on Monday.

According to a HEU press release issued Tuesday, those workers are now taking strike votes to back their proposals for a fair contract.

Blamey said the union believes low wages are part of the problem in the health care system, which she said is now clearly divided into two-tiers. "We know that low wages are a big part of the problem because it creates high staff turnover," she said. "People are looking for other jobs, and they're finding them."