Horizon hospitals flunk CBC News cleanliness test

A CBC New Brunswick investigation shows that UV light-reactive gel hadn't been cleaned from some test surfaces in hospitals one day, one week, and in some cases, months, after application. 

CBC News took hidden cameras into the Saint John Regional Hospital and the Dr. Everett Chalmers Hospital in Fredericton to test Horizon Health Network's claims of new and improved cleanliness.

The investigation uncovered some dirt.

After doing poorly on an external cleanliness audit last year by Ontario's Niagara Health Services, Horizon vowed to improve. According to the recent monthly results from its new cleanliness audit program, the health authority says it now exceeds its target of 85 per cent cleanliness in almost all emergency departments and patient rooms.

This is something that we can go back and learn from.- Jeff Carter, Horizon's v-p of operations and support

The Horizon cleanliness audit is a visual audit. A supervisor does a visual check of the room's cleanliness.

The CBC News test used a colourless, ultra violet light-reactive gel, to see whether test surfaces had been scrubbed clean. The surfaces included handrails, waiting area chair arm rests, elevator buttons and multiple surfaces in washrooms, in emergency, day surgery and cardiac areas in the two hospitals.

After 24 hours, 32 of 34 test surfaces throughout both hospitals still glowed from the gel.

The emergency room washrooms were still glowing with gel after 24 hours, despite multiple visits by cleaning staff. Some surfaces showed they had been wiped mostly clean, but some gel residue remained. 

After a week, the service elevators used to carry staff, patients, lab samples, laundry and meal deliveries in both hospitals still hadn't been cleaned.

Overall, gel could still be found on just under half of the surfaces in Fredericton, and just over half in Saint John.

Jeff Carter, Horizon's vice-president of operations and support, said in February CBC's findings were "unfortunate," but "not necessarily a surprise to me."

"Because as I mentioned earlier, our focus right now with our cleaning blitz is on the emergency rooms, and the patient care rooms," he said. 

"Obviously if something has not been cleaned for a week, then you come back and your gel is still there, that's representative of a problem."

Ralph McBride, a national representative for the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents hospital cleaners, couldn't say why the service elevators hadn't been cleaned after a week.

"This could be a workload issue where somebody's supposed to have been here, but didn't go there because they went somewhere else," said McBride. "But it is a piece we have to study by the committee and see why did that happen."

Both management and the union said in February they would take the results to a new steering committee on cleanliness, which is made up of administration and front-line staff.

"This is something that we can go back and learn from," Carter said.

CBC News returned to the hospitals in April and repeated the earlier tests. The results were nearly the same, with 29 of 31 re-tested surfaces still showing gel after one day and more than half, after one week.

Three surfaces — an elevator button panel and two handrails — still showed gel that was applied in January.

There will be a board meeting Thursday where an update on cleanliness initiatives is on the agenda.