HORRY COUNTY, SC (WBTW) – The World Health Organization declared the coronavirus as a pandemic Wednesday, but Grand Strand Medical Center’s environmental services team has been cleaning and preparing for the virus long before Wednesday.
“We really have invested here in realizing that what we do is a mission. An everyday mission to make sure that we take care of our patients,” said Kevin Radford, Grand Strand Medical Center’s Environmental Services Director.
The housekeeping staff is making it a mission to contain the coronavirus and keep patients protected. They’re working to clean Grand Strand Medical’s 369 hospital rooms, which includes 24 ER rooms.
“We’re wiping down beds, we’re wiping down railings, we’re wiping down the toilets and the sinks,” said housekeeper Tracey Sherman.
The staff are working in overdrive to keep the coronavirus out, which they say can live on a surface for up to nine days.
Housekeeping Supervisor Sharon Warner says they use a five-step system that they were taught with industrial-strength wipes that kill the virus.
“It is something that we continuously do throughout the day,” Warner said.
For Sharon and Tracey, it’s much more than just working harder to keep ahead of the virus.
“We don’t know, sooner or later, if our family members will come here and be in the hospital. We would want the same thing for them,” said Sherman.
Radford says he teaches his staff that concept, to think of their own family members and how they would want them to be protected.
“My mom passed about eight months ago, and she was a patient here, and it gave me an opportunity to feel satisfied in knowing that we’ve been doing everything we can to make sure that we do it for your family member as I do it for my family member,” said Radford.
“Our director, every morning, Kevin Radford, he makes sure, you know, they keep meetings every single morning, and this is something that they actually teach us,” said Warner.
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