Time to care: Facilities manager changes clocks, changes patient’s experience

Josh Medeiros, facilities manager at Adventist Health in California’s Central Valley, realized that, even though he’s not a caregiver in title, he can still have an impact on a patient’s hospital experience.

Josh and his co-workers needed to manually change all the clocks at Adventist Health Hanford one hour ahead, due to daylight saving time last spring. They challenged each other to see who could finish the task first. Josh decided to have a little extra fun, and as he entered each room he introduced himself with a new job title.

“I would say, ‘Hi, I’m Josh, and I’m with the Time Travel Division. I’m here to update your clock.’”

He remembers entering one patient’s room. As he delivered his time travel line, the woman laughed and engaged him in a conversation. He stayed and talked to her for a while, and noticed sanitizing wipes and plastic hand gloves, instead of flowers and cards from family, on shelves he had previously installed.

“I realized she didn’t want to talk to me, she just wanted to talk to somebody,” says Josh.

Josh knew what to do. He visited the hospital gift shop and purchased a card and flowers. He went back to the patient’s room and told her he noticed her shelf was being misused. He removed the gloves and sanitizing wipes, placed the flowers on the shelf and gave her the card.

“She started to break down,” says Josh. “She said nothing like this ever happens to her. She reacted as if she had won the lottery or won some kind of prize.”

Josh sat with the woman for about 10 minutes, understanding he had changed her whole hospital experience.

“I might come unclog your sink and replace your lightbulbs or a ceiling tile and go home at the end of the day and think, ‘I’m just a maintenance guy,’ but it’s nice to know we have an impact on patient care too.”