When Rajeni Deo and Alex Ansah got the word that a surgical team completed a bunion removal at the Kaiser Permanente Fremont Medical Center, they got down to business fast.
With no time for chit chat, the two Environmental Services employees entered the now-empty operating room and began hauling out bags of waste. The waste is separated and placed in different receptacles required to keep everyone at the hospital and in the community safe. This sorting also meets regulatory and quality standards.
Not for the faint of heart, these employees can encounter all manner of surgical particles left behind after an operation.
After taking out the trash, they began a methodical clean of every single surface in the operating room from top to bottom. The operating table, overhead lights, equipment, floors — nothing was spared.
The operating room clean was a tightly choreographed procedure done in time for the next surgical case to arrive, with a mandatory 5-minute waiting period when nobody can enter the room while the cleaning agent killed germs. The 2 do the same procedure 18 to 36 times a day in the hospital’s 9 operating and procedure rooms. A separate group cleans the operating rooms once more at night.
Deo and Ansah recently joined 6 other Environmental Services employees at the hospital in celebrating a successful surgical cleaning technician certification class. And they are the first among their peers in all Northern California to receive it.
“We’re just so proud of these guys,” said Iva Smith, Environmental Services director at the medical center. “We’re hoping other employees are interested in becoming certified. Kaiser pays for it, and you study during work.”
Smith said employees learned the “why” of cleaning properly and how that can save lives. They learned about the different pathogens and organisms that can inhabit an operating room, and the depth of cleaning needed to eliminate them.
Every operating room is further disinfected once each night with ultraviolet light and supervisors check to make sure cleaning is carried out properly, said Krista Clapp, Fremont Medical Center Support Services administrator.
On a monthly basis, 20 surfaces, such as the operating room table, lights, computer keyboards, and other equipment, are checked for the presence of harmful microorganisms to verify cleanliness, she said.
Deo, a Kaiser Permanente employee for 10 years, said the class was an excellent refresher on how important proper cleaning techniques are.
“I learned about the latest infections and best practices to control them,” said Deo. “My boss asked me if I wanted to take the class, and I said, ‘Of course.’”
Smith said all 91 Environmental Services employees at the hospital go through 3 weeks of training that qualifies them to clean operating rooms. Every employee follows a high professional standard of systematically cleaning operating rooms.
The 8 employees who underwent the additional 24 hours of certification training followed by a 2-hour test demonstrate their mastery of skills in keeping the surgical environment safe, Smith added.
“It’s really detailed work,” she said. “If a patient goes into the operating room with some kind of infection, the team has to clean properly to make sure the next surgery case is not vulnerable to whatever the previous case brought in. When you think about it, it’s really critical work, because so much is dependent on these guys.”
In addition to Deo and Ansah, six others received the certification: Vinita Devi, Mekedes Zelalem, Hare Gabresilssie, Hirit Hagos, Crison Burcio, and Jauma Brown.
