Hospital cleaning staff work overtime amid COVID-19
Written by Paul Graif on 25 April 2020
Cleaning staff at the Kateri Memorial Hospital Center (KMHC) are putting in extra hours to keep patients and frontline hospital workers safe amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Everybody’s working very hard, quite often there’s overtime involved,” said the head of disinfection operations, Tom Phillips, in a community update on Saturday.
Phillips said three additional staff have been added to the cleaning team since the pandemic began. Starting at 6 a.m., the team’s work includes ensuring all high-touch surfaces are frequently sanitized and that elders’ rooms are cleaned everyday.
“They take a lot of pride in what they do—they know who they’re doing it for,” said Phillips.
Meanwhile, frontline workers received additional PPE and hand sanitizer earlier in the week, according to an update from the community task force’s Emergency Management Coordinator, Atiesa Foot.
Foot said additional masks, face shields, gloves and hand sanitizer was delivered to frontline workers in police, fire, and ambulance this week.
He said the KSCS and KMHC also received additional hand sanitizer.
“The order was necessary to maintain the surplus that we presently have to ensure that the frontline workers have the equipment necessary to serve Kahnawake,” said Foot.
