Look for the Helpers
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COVID-19 continues to challenge health care employees in every department of every hospital. This special section introduces several AHA Affiliated Group leaders who tell their hospitals' behind-the-scenes stories of triumphing over COVID challenges.
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(Below) Conway Regional Environmental Services Supervisor Raymond Butler cleans a room.
(Above) Conway Regional Health System Maintenance installs a temporary wall. Pictured are Senior Maintenance Electrician Sean Brown (on the ladder) and Senior Maintenance Technician Tony Starnes. (Photos by Montie Hennard, Creative Specialist, Conway Regional Health System)
Behind the Scenes:
Hospital Engineers Meet COVID Challenges By Eric Kindsfater, President, Arkansas Association of Healthcare Engineering
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ospital engineers are experts at problem solving. Every day in our work, we find solutions to difficult or complex issues – the very definition of meeting challenges. Members of the Arkansas Association for Healthcare Engineering (AAHE), an affiliate group of the Arkansas Hospital Association, provide clinicians, patients, and visitors with safe and functional environments of care. It's been my distinct privilege to serve as AAHE President since 2019. As my term draws to a close this April, I’m reflecting on the significant contributions health care engineering professionals provide to their facilities. Though not involved directly in patient care, hospital engineers – often-unsung men and women – provide an undeniably critical X factor to every health care organization. During normal operations, health care engineering tasks range from the challenging and demanding to the routine and mundane. Managing positive and/or negative air flows, balancing the requirements of heating and cooling, providing availability of clean water, maintaining air exhaust and return systems, performing necessary preventive maintenance on all systems (both critical and non-critical), identifying efficiencies for energy consumption ... the list may at times seem never-ending.
OH, THE MESSES!
Health care engineering includes Environmental Services, whose teams dutifully execute their assignments 24/7. Visitors, patients, staff of all types … we make a lot of messes and generate a tremendous amount of work for the EVS staff. Whether it’s biohazardous waste from the lab and main operating room, cardboard boxes from Materials Management/ Supply Chain, or simple coffee spills from visitors, the Environmental Services team is there day-in and day-out to address needs. These processes are endless. The work is never finished. Work orders, emails, and phone calls continuously roll in. Which is more important: testing functionality of the critical branch of electrical service or adhering to strict cleaning guidelines for patient rooms? The truth is, each item, no matter how it may appear on the surface, is equally important. And the performance of these duties occurs Every. Single. Day. The scope of these efforts can be daunting: serving thousands of people, maintaining buildings with hundreds of thousands of square feet. We manage every operational system that keeps the air and water clean, the temperature comfortable, and the lights on. ARKANSAS HOSPITALS | SPRING 2022 29
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