HERDING CATS What it’s like to work in facilities management during a pandemic By Mitch Weimer
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ot long ago, someone asked what my job entailed. I thought it was a ‘funny’ question given I had worked with the person for 20 years. However, it got me thinking about what I actually do. Although my title is director of facilities maintenance and operations, I often feel like the chief cat herder. It has taken a while to figure this out and actually train the cats. (They really don’t take direction well.) Let me explain. In my role as a director of a regional health authority, I oversee many sites of different types and various vintages. Despite the distinctions between them, there is a desire by the organization to standardize mostly everything across the authority. However, what works for one acute care hospital may not for 26 CANADIAN HEALTHCARE FACILITIES
TRY DOING THESE THINGS AT 12 DIFFERENT ACUTE FACILITIES (AND STAT) ONLY TO BE TOLD TO DISMANTLE AN INITIATIVE BECAUSE IT DOESN'T WORK FOR ONE DEPARTMENT. another. When one long-term care administrator has an idea, it may not be applicable to the other 25 sites. Throw in complex care facilities and a diverse range of buildings, and it becomes like herding cats. So you might ask, how has COVID-19 affected your job, Mitch? Well, it just added a bunch of strange animals to the herd.
As we moved through the various stages of the pandemic, we had to address new items and issues while keeping up with old wants and needs. First on the list were isolation rooms. Then came oxygen supply concerns and the desire for negative pressure operating rooms (OR) — which, by the way, are against code — followed by requests to make a negative pressure emergency
