Video: OCH Regional Medical Center Wellness and Cleanliness

by Victoria Bailey

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI)—Hospitals can be considered one of the most dirty places. Thousands of people visit the hospital each year and leave feeling better and a contributing  factor to that is the cleanliness of the facility.

When being admitted to the hospital, most people concern themselves with Why their there, getting the proper medications and the abilities of doctor and nursing staff. But one of the most important contributions to wellness is cleanliness.

In A place where illness, germs and disease are very present it is important to keep all surfaces clean. The Oktibbeha County Hospital take several precautions to make that happen.

Savannah Brown the Infection Control Manager says, “you know there’s an abundance of kinds of precautions. We have a transmission precaution which will include your contact precautions, droplet precautions as well as airborne iceolation and we use all of those depending on the type illness you might have but for any patient we use standard precautions which means if it’s wet and not yours wear gloves.”

The emergency room alone see about 30-35 thousand patients a year and with such a large number every area of the hospital must meet the hygiene standard set fourth by the hospital.

Kennedy Neal the Director of Environmental Service Department says, ” We do a special cleaning to our L.N.D. area to our nursery area once a month we have to get into those areas to do very deep cleaning.”

The custodial staff is  made up of 34 people and  thought One of the hospital’s main concerns is the patients safety but they also take special precautions to help keep their staff safe as well.

Neal says, “They have to make sure that they have on their gowns their goggles their shoes… shoe covers as well as their gloves to make sure that they are following the rules and making sure that they are safe that they don’t carry anything home with them to their families.”

Kennedy Neal the director of environmental service department goes on to say keeping the hospital clean is a 7 days a week 24 hour job and none of it would be possible without his staff.

Neal says,”it’s a seven days a week operation and they work holidays here at the hospital and I have a really good staff… with out them I wouldn’t be able to get the job done. My hat goes off to them and I salute them and they do a very good job here at OCH.”

Savannah brown the infection control manager goes on to say the health and safety of both the staff and patient is very important. She showed me an app the hospital staff has on their phones to keep up with hand hygiene called ISCRUB.