{"id":190103,"date":"2022-09-09T10:49:18","date_gmt":"2022-09-09T14:49:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=190103"},"modified":"2022-09-09T10:49:18","modified_gmt":"2022-09-09T14:49:18","slug":"keeping-it-clean-for-patient-staff-safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2022\/09\/keeping-it-clean-for-patient-staff-safety\/","title":{"rendered":"Keeping It Clean for Patient, Staff Safety"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oleg Krupa spends most of his working hours on the fifth floor of the UConn John Dempsey Hospital. He\u2019s not trained to deliver patient care, but he works alongside those who are, and his work is vital to them delivering that care.<\/p>\n

Krupa is part of UConn Health\u2019s housekeeping workforce of more than 240, a combination of regular payroll and contract employees. He\u2019s been at UConn Health in various capacities for 14 years, including the last six as a full-time custodian.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important to be here, to serve people, to help people, to help the whole hospital, to help whole medical units, to keep this hospital clean and safe,\u201d Krupa says. \u201cSafety is most important here.\u201d<\/p>\n

That mindset didn\u2019t change in March 2020, when coming to work turned into a potential health hazard. For those on the front lines of health care, the COVID-19 pandemic turned their work into an even greater calling, and the housekeepers answered.<\/p>\n

\n

We knew we had a responsibility, and it was to keep everyone else in the hospital safe.
\n — Ulises Perez<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cNormally I cover first shift, and I worked more because they needed more people covering night shift,\u201d Krupa recalls. \u201cMost important was constant disinfection of basically everything, all countertops, all handles. We were disinfecting all day and all night, constantly. And we always help the nurses, if they ask us to do something extra, if something happens with a patient, we can jump quickly to the room and clean quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Housekeeper
Pelagia Martinez cleans a sink in a patient room in the UConn John Dempsey Hospital. (Photo by Ulises Perez)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Pelagia Martinez, whose regular floor is the second, says, \u201cLife through the pandemic was so stressful and scary to a point that I didn\u2019t have an appetite. But it was my responsibility to come in to work.\u201d<\/p>\n

George Moses, the manager who oversees UConn Health\u2019s custodial services, says these accounts are representative of the overwhelming dedication the housekeepers showed during the height of the pandemic, and continue to show today.<\/p>\n

At one point in 2020, Moses brought in reinforcements from the contractor, SMG, to help with the workload, with the plan of rotating staff so those who were on COVID floors got some hours in other areas.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe went to these individual floors and said we\u2019re going to rotate them off so they\u2019re not in the COVID areas every day,\u201d Moses says. \u201cThey told us, \u2018Oh, absolutely not, we\u2019re staying with our people. This is our family on this floor.\u2019 They had developed those relationships with the staff, and they told us, \u2018Please don\u2019t move us.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Ulises Perez has been part of the housekeeping staff since 2010 and became a supervising custodian earlier this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust like a nurse, they love and they\u2019re passionate about their job, about serving the patients,\u201d Perez says. \u201cThey didn\u2019t want to go home because they wanted to stay. This is our home. These are our families. We knew we had a responsibility, and it was to keep everyone else in the hospital safe. Being a housekeeper at UConn Health is a huge responsibility, not just maintaining the cleanliness, it is keeping infections from spreading, which is our main goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"housekeepr
Myriam Nevarez-Torres is one of more than 170 contracted housekeepers at UConn Health. She\u2019s been working at UConn Health since 2015. (Photo by Chris DeFrancesco)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And they would gear up for work just like the clinical staff they joined on the front lines.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a little bit stressful at first, but I put on a mask, double mask, N95, and shield, and I was working,\u201d Krupa says. \u201cI got three shots. I was OK. I was doing my job.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOther staff and visitors should recognize that we are a huge part of the UConn family,\u201d Martinez says. \u201cI believe the housekeepers and nurses have similar responsibilities to the patient. We all make sure that the patient\u2019s health comes first. I believe we are all equal here at UConn Health.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perez says it\u2019s easy to take good housekeeping staff for granted.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe go above and beyond taking out the garbage,\u201d Perez says. \u201cWe keep our patients, doctors, nurses, and everyone who works at UConn healthy and safe by keeping the facility clean. We also make sure the patients feel comfortable by engaging in positive conversation and having the room clean while they are here. We are a huge part of UConn\u2019s priority team.\u201d<\/p>\n

UConn Health is observing Housekeeping and Environmental Services Appreciation Week, Sept. 11-17.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the UConn Health community understands that we\u2019re just like the rest of the staff,\u201d Moses says. \u201cWe live in the community, we have families, and we\u2019re just doing our jobs so others can do theirs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perez adds, \u201cA housekeeper will never think of themselves. We are always thinking of how to make everyone safe and happy. We are unique people.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Krupa takes satisfaction from that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m proud of myself to help and serve people, and I\u2019m happy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UConn Health\u2019s housekeepers are the front-line folks who don’t provide patient care, but provide a safe, healthy environment for those who do. Housekeeping and Environmental Services Appreciation Week is Sept. 11-17.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":190107,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2388,179],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2010],"class_list":["post-190103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-healthcare-workforce","category-uconn-health"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-09 20:39:49","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190103"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":190113,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190103\/revisions\/190113"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/190107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190103"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=190103"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=190103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}