Essential operations: KSB’s housekeeping plays integral role in safety

DIXON – A team of 29 people work tirelessly to make sure conditions are clean and safe at KSB Hospital.

Housekeeping Leader Pam Mohr, who’s been with the hospital for 12 and 1/2 years, begins her day at 7 a.m. and handles all scheduling for the housekeeping staff to make sure all areas are covered, from picking up what drops on the floors and distributing clean linens to making sure rooms are ready for tunrover in the Emergency Room and COVID-19 wing.

She also makes sure there’s proper personal protective equipment available.

Mohr mostly serves in a leadership role, but she won’t hesitate to grab a cleaning cart and cover an area if a housekeeper isn’t available.

“It’s gotten a lot busier; everyone is part of it. All of us try really hard,” she said.

Efficiency is key with the growing need to turnover rooms, and Mohr said they can usually take care of a room in 20 to 30 minutes, and 45 minutes in larger areas.

They also have to wait 30 minutes before cleaning a room that housed a COVID-19 patient, so timing is crucial.

“It can be a tough juggling act,” Housekeeping Director Jamey Postlewaite said.

The need for ultraviolet disinfection has increased 100-fold, Postlewaite said, and they also greatly increased the number of negative pressure rooms, a type of isolation room that prevents germs from spreading to other areas.

Housekeeping is an essential function, especially with preventing infection spread within the facility.

“If we don’t have housekeeping, the hospital doesn’t open,” he said.

The Illinois Hospital Association put out a call across the state to nominate “unsung heroes” during the pandemic, and Postlewaite was quick to nominate Mohr for her dedication.

Mohr was then honored as a health care hero by Gov. JB Pritzker during his Dec. 2 daily briefing.

“Pam tirelessly leads her staff through the task of cleaning COVID-19 occupied rooms from the emergency department to the operating room, making sure everyone has the proper PPE and making it possible for the next patient to safely use that room,” Pritzker said. “And remember, often these housekeepers are going into rooms when the patient is still in them, meaning that they’re one of the limited faces that the patient might have contact with while actively battling COVID-19.”

“It was such a nice surprise; I’m honored to have been chosen,” Mohr said. “It’s not just one person though; it’s all of us.”

Mohr enjoys her job, but she looks forward to the day when things go back to normal.

“I really enjoy my job and seeing patients and working here,” she said. “I try to always think positive.”

Postlewaite looks forward to the day when people can smile at each other in the hallway again.

The team provides an essential function, and they persevere through the hard times, he said.

“We’re like a family.”