The Future of EVS
By Colby C. Morris, CHESP
March 23, 2014 | Formats: Article | Content Areas: Administration, Financial Stewardship | Tags: Benchmarking, Communication, Cost Management, Finance & Budgeting, Leadership, Management
The future of health care is as clear and certain as the muddy windows you clean after a rainy day. We have certainly heard the doom and gloom, and yet we also hear the promise of improvement. In today’s health care environment, that means change. But, for you, the environmental services (EVS) professional, the future is marked by the necessity of change.
Showing your value
The EVS professional, as we know it, will and should fade away. Gone are the days of just assuring the place is clean. The task of walking the areas to straighten the chairs in the lobby is enhanced, but only by the interactions you will have while doing so. The days of only providing an overtime and supply-expense report to your boss are gone. In its place you will show the value that the position, your position, provides to the hospital.
Value, by definition, is relative worth, merit or importance. The changing role of the EVS professional is one of adding value, partnering with patients and nurses, and demonstrating the importance of our position by adding a defined, tangible value to the facility. That value could be shown in HCAHPS scores, your Press Ganey scores or other patient satisfaction evaluations. EVS now has an even greater responsibility for HCAHPS scores that will help determine the hospital’s reimbursements.
You could also show your value in how you manage your budget, your payroll and how you collaborate on issues in other departments. We have valuable insight concerning what materials should and should not be used in particular areas. We should be the right-hand partner of the infection control department. When people wonder who can get something accomplished, you and your department should be one of the first mentioned.
Hospitals are changing – be proactive
More and more hospitals are moving toward building clinics and surgery centers. Acute outpatient care settings are moving away from the hospital. The hospital itself will provide service to the sicker, more critical patients. In that case, you need to know how to provide better service to this new patient mix and be able to quantify the value. You will need to provide ATP (adenosine triphosphate) results to your infection control department. It will also become a way to evaluate your EVS technicians. You will move toward actual measureable results (objective) instead of your opinion (subjective) of how clean surfaces are.
Much of this may sound like things you’re already doing. However, you will need to be proactive in looking at your business and trying to figure out the answer to one question: “What’s next?” You will be the one who can decide and act on those things you see as must-have action items. You are the one who will be called upon to think out of the box to solve an issue. Do you need to recommend moving toward no-wax flooring? If you have to cut staff in the future, which positions would you need to cut? What things will you recommend that your team either stop doing or do less of? Do you have the political and social capital to make that happen? You have to be the one to see into your future and take control of it before it is here.
EVS is changing. Prove your value. Show that you know what it takes to be in the business – not just in the operations, but in the business. That time is now. You have to be the constant, because from here on out in health care, the only constant is change.