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How IEHA Helped Transform a VA Hospital

Categories: Cleaning Best Practices, Cleaning for Health & Safety, ISSA Insights

When Kevin Edwards, an IEHA Master Certified Environmental Services Executive, first arrived at the VA Medical Center at Martinsburg, West Virginia, in 2019, he found a facility in trouble. A lack of training, purpose, and attention to detail among the facilities staff led to the hospital being ranked #55 in the VA system for cleanliness.

“Chemicals were not being used properly, and their housekeepers actually really didn’t know their role,” Edwards reflects.

As the chief of environmental management services (EMS), Edwards knew things had to change. Within his first few months on the job, Edwards called Michael Patterson, executive director of IEHA, a division of ISSA that focuses on the health care and hospitality sectors of the cleaning industry. “Mike was very instrumental in letting us know what our problem was and what we needed to do to correct our problems,” Edwards explains. One of those problems was the assumption that everyone knew housekeeping and was working up to the same standard, but that usually isn’t the case without a rigorous training program. “Everybody cleaned it differently,” Edwards reflects. “The VA doesn’t have a set way everybody should clean, but IEHA gathered us in that direction.”

Edwards began by having all 10 of his supervisors become IEHA certified executive housekeepers. Then he sent 40 of his housekeepers to IEHA training to become certified frontline supervisors. “We had to let the housekeeper know as well as the supervisor where we’re trying to go, and everybody had to be on the same sheet of music,” Edwards explains.

With the help of IEHA training, the facility’s operations began to transform. Over the course of nearly four years, the VA Medical Center at Martinsburg went from #55 to #1 in cleanliness of all 1c facilities in the nation. “Everybody took pride in what they wanted to do, so now we are all jumping up and down that we’re number one,” says Edwards. Now, the team has its sights set on being ranked number one in cleanliness of all VA facilities overall, regardless of size.

In the health care industry, cleanliness is crucial, and the accomplishments of Edwards and his team are known throughout the hospital. “The medical center director and associate director are giving us accolades for what we did, but they were very instrumental in giving us the support and the funds to get it done,” Edwards explains. He also notes that big changes take time, as well as buy-in. “It will not happen overnight.” When asked if, looking back over the yearslong transformation, he would do anything differently, Edwards jokes, “I probably would have gotten Mike out here a little earlier.”

The reputation of Edwards and his team is now known outside of his hospital as well, and other EMS supervisors have begun to reach out, asking how they did it. “I recommended the IEHA certification and the training for the housekeepers,” Edwards says. “That’s the only thing I could tell them, that if you train and motivate your people, if your leaders know what to do, and they can properly train the housekeepers, you can go to number one—all of us can.”

But for Edwards, the ranking is just an outward symbol of what’s truly important in the cleaning and health care industries: quality of service. “I’m recommending that we all get this certification because it makes a difference and it’s for our vets—it’s for all our vets that served our country, and they deserve to have five-star cleanliness throughout the VA.”

Hear more from Edwards on how IEHA helped transform his facility in the below Straight Talk! interview. 

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