If you see one of our Environmental Services (EVS) colleagues this week or next, please thank them for all they do! It’s Healthcare Environmental Services Week. I want to thank them for all they have done, and continue to do, to keep us all safe during the pandemic.
The work of our EVS team has always been integral to keeping patients and employees healthy across all of our locations, but their work took on new weight this year. They have continuously risen to every challenge we faced and every change we implemented during COVID-19. They also stayed flexible and kind as we increased our capacity for patients; they helped new staff find their way and feel at home in our hospital. And, they do it all with so much professionalism, excellence, and kindness. Thank you all.
Here are a few of my favorite recent stories about our EVS colleagues going above and beyond. You can click below to read the stories on Instagram:
- Walkiria Zamora took care of the visiting nurses and other colleagues on our 10 Linsky surge unit.
- Vito Connena, beloved colleague from Union Square, retired after 28 years.
- Fanny Castillo made friends with a very special patient of ours by taking him for walks on 9 Silver.
- Union Square Medical Office Specialists Yuriko Higa Fuentes and Mirvjena Polici (and many others) bravely accepted temporary redeployments to help with EVS during the height of our pandemic surge.
There are so many more stories.
Keeping our facility clean is everyone’s job. It helps us present a safe and welcoming space for our patients. We can always do more to support our EVS colleagues by cleaning up after eating, throwing our trash away, and wiping down public counters and computers between uses. These small actions will allow them to do their work even more effectively.
Thank you to all of our EVS colleagues across Downtown. We are inspired by your compassion and dedication to the MSBI family.