Herding Cats

What it’s like to work in facilities management during a pandemic

By Mitch Weimer

Not 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

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

department trauma bay that doesn’t have doors and build OR anterooms in the OR Trust. corridor to fully engulf a stretcher but not impede workflow. (Say what?) Try doing these things at 12 different acute facilities (and stat) only to be told to dismantle an C Di om e p s l el ian F c u e el & Sy U s p te gr m ades initiative because it doesn’t work for one department.

Then it was decided that we should try to build an antechamber (a small room to capture and exhaust air from a normal positive pressure OR). When asked to check the airflow and rebalance all the ORs, I asked, Which way should the air flow between an OR and sterile core? That didn’t go over well. It depends on when the OR was built, so every site has a different setup depending on its age.

Afterward, someone remembered surgeries are performed not only in the ORs but in many other hospital departments. So, we had to test the airflow to confirm the relative pressures and air exchanges per hour in more than 300 procedure rooms across 12 acute care sites.

When can you have that done, Mitch? Oh, by the way, you have to work around our schedules 1 Concorde Gate,Suite 808 and we really don’t know when that room will Toronto, Ontario be free. 416.443.9499 a llso mcgregor - p.com

Next was a construction worker walkout at one of our large construction sites. We were faced with the challenge of remedying the situation and getting people back to work at the McGregor_Condo_March_2020.indd 2 (almost completed) facility, which was a major cog in our COVID-19 surge capacity program. CHES SCISS (The plan doesn’t work if the building isn’t ready Canadian Healthcare Engineering Society Société canadienne d'ingénierie des services de santé to take patients.) Throughout all this, we had physical distancing measures to consider. The cats were National Healthcare Facilities onboard but each wanted something different at their site (35-plus in total). and Engineering Week

In May, it was announced that B.C. had October 18 - 24, 2020 flattened the curve. This was great news as we could start easing back to normal. But Recognize yourself, your department and your staff during this also led to a plethora of requests: How Healthcare Engineering Week. Make sure everybody knows the fast can we convert an OR from positive to vital role played by CHES members in maintaining a safe, secure negative pressure? (The authority needed to and functioning environment for your institution. ramp up the surgical capacity to recover from 14 weeks of cancelled surgeries). Can *2020 Challenge* you make sure all ORs are ready to go and CHES Members are challenged to celebrate NHFEW by be open after hours? Oh, and remember the creating a short video and posting it on LinkedIn or Twitter using 17 old medical device reprocessors that you #NHFEW. CHES will then like and share it on LinkedIn couldn’t get parts for? Well, we couldn’t get (@CHES National Office) and Twitter (@CHES_SCISS). the funds for replacement but we need them all working overtime to support the increase in OR slates. (Sigh.)

Visit the CHES Website Mitch Weimer is director of facilities maintewww.ches.org/resources/ for downloadable material nance and operations for the Fraser Health to help you with plans to celebrate!

2020-04-16 1:55 PM