Excellent program soliciting improved practice due to the Pandemic.

1. Beyond COVID
May 16, 2020 1
Good Morning!
The BeyondCovid Program is an excellent idea.
Let's continue documenting progress to continually improve our work,
beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic!
Hospital Ambulance Bays are defined as Secondary Treatment Areas, designed for:
Controlled and Efficient Transfer of Patients from EMS to Tertiary Care.
This is followed by standard work in a safe, efficient environment cleaning and
restocking the Ambulance before returning to service in the Community.
Hospital Ambulance Bays are also spaces designed to be co-opted during an MCI,
now in some cases they have been taken over by ER as a COVID treatment space.
Mapping use & barriers to this process has been documented thoroughly here:
https://www.slideshare.net/DonSharpe/hospital-ambulance-bay-design
The Hospital Ambulance Bays can be divided into three man areas:
The Driveways, EMS Supply Room and Pyxis/Lunchroom.
All Three Areas have benefited from increased attention during the Pandemic.
What We’ve Been Doing.
Cleaning routines immediately needed to be improved because of the increased
waste that PPE and the Pandemic processes have produced.
EMS has been using modified duty staff in the Calgary Zone to support the current
inadequate cleaning routines at all Calgary Zone Hospitals.
In the Hospital Ambulance Bay Driveways EMS staff have been sweeping floors,
emptying garbages, cavi-wiping surfaces and changing water in the mop buckets.
In the EMS Supply Room EMS staff have been sweeping floors, cavi-wiping surfaces
and moving/cleaning behind hospital stock carts and decontamination carts.
In the Pyxis/Lunchroom EMS staff have been sweeping floors, emptying garbages,
cavi-wiping lunchroom eating surfaces and cleaning behind the Pyxis machines.
Working with Sodexo and Hospital Leadership, many of the cleaning routines have
been improved. There is still some work to be done.

2. Beyond COVID
May 16, 2020 2
What needs to happen next.
The Foothills Hospital is now the ONLY HOSPITAL that continues to store biohazard
waste and cardboard from the EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT in the Ambulance Bay.
Storing Waste from the ER in an adjoining Secondary Treatment Area interferes
with EMS Patient Movement, is poor practice and needs to cease.
At the Rockyview Hospital, housekeeping staff has not been diligent in emptying the
garbages. They have in some cases refused to enter the Ambulance Bay until 3 pm.
At regular times during the day and night in the Hospital Ambulance Bay, the
garbage cans frequently overflow onto the floor.
At some Hospitals, EMS Supply Rooms and Pyxis/Lunchrooms need more frequent
attention from housekeeping than they are currently receiving. Sweeping the floors,
wiping surfaces and refilling hand sanitizers is primarily their job, not EMS staff.
Too often during the day some of these important EMS workspaces, which are part
of the Hospital, are neglected… especially when EMS calls and transports spike.
Let's remember that when the ER gets busy, the AMBULANCE BAY gets busy too.
We'll continue to message EMS staff to ASSIST Hospital Staff with Cleaning Duties.
Hospital Ambulance Bays will remain PART OF THE HOSPITAL and so it will remain
the Hospital's responsibility to provide a safe, clean space for EMS crews to work in.
Thank you for providing this opportunity to offer constructive feedback.
Respectfully,
Don Sharpe - Paramedic
AHS EMS Calgary Team A44
"In our organization, we have two jobs: do your job and improve it.
Our staff do that every day through daily improvement."
- Karen Kiel Rosser, VP & Quality Improvement Officer at Mary Greeley