Opinion: In hospitals, housekeepers are truly the ‘keepers of the house’
"Interprofessional cooperation" and "teamwork" are among the newest buzzwords in modern hospital medicine. It's past time to make housekeepers an essential part of those teams.
Malcolm cleans patient rooms and offices in the large medical center where we both work as pediatric doctors.
After finishing our respective rounds one afternoon, we noticed that Malcolm was deep in conversation with the parents of one of our very sick patients. We met him later in the hall, and the three of us began to talk. After Malcolm told us a bit about the concerns of our patient’s family, he mentioned the ways he often supports and cares for the children being treated
