Yvonne Robertson, EVS Manager retires from BBGH after 44 years of serving the community

Hospital news | Friday, August 22, 2025

🙌 Yvonne Robertson is retiring and her last day as our EVS Manager is today! Yvonne has supported our hospital for 44 years and seen it all. Through all of our ups and downs Yvonne has helped pull us through and keep our facility top-notch! From the bottom of our hearts, thank you Yvonne, for all that you have done, all who you have inspired and all of your time you have given to this community!!! Please help us in celebrating Yvonne and her much deserved retirement! 🙌

Check out some fun things that include Yvonne from the past:

July 2017- Employee of the Month: "Yvonne Robertson is simply awesome! She goes above the job. Yvonne is always there for you, always pitches in and is always willing to help find correct info on products. She is a true leader who never asks anyone to do anything that she wouldn’t do. Yvonne is always working side by side with her staff. She is a key member of our infection prevention efforts and researches best practices and products. Yvonne has an excellent orientation and competency program for staff that has been recognized by the CDC and ICAP program. She is a star at BBGH and we are lucky to have her. Congratulations Yvonne on being named our July 2017 Employee of the Month!"
2017 - BBGH Environmental Services Department much more than ‘housekeepers’: Ms. Robertson said, “In recent years EVS has grown so much so that many are certified. We joined the American Hospital Association’s Association for the Healthcare Environment (AHE) and through them there are many certifications that one can achieve.” Some of the certifications include: CHESP (Certified Hospital Environmental Service Professional), CHEST (Certified Hospital Environmental Service Tech), CMIP (Certified Master of Infection Prevention), CSCT (Certified Surgical Cleaning Tech), and FAHE (Fellow of the Association for the Healthcare Environment). Ohio University has also added an environmental service program as a college course. “We do a lot of education for our staff so that they are knowledgeable in infection control, safety, chemical safety, and TeamSTEPPS, just to name a few,” Ms. Robertson continued. “The EVS department plays a big part in our HCAHPS scores as part of the questions asked about the cleanliness of the hospital environment. We are just one part of the care and safety of our patients and visitors. So there are many advantages to our department that were not available before and anyone can make this a profession that they can be proud of.”
2008 - Environmental Services has multiple roles in hospital setting: Yvonne Robertson is Manager of Environmental Services at BBGH, promoted to that position in 1990. She began her employment at BBGH in 1980, and has witnessed, (and implemented) many changes in her profession since that time. “It’s changed in a lot of basic ways,” Ms. Robertson said. “For example, we didn’t used to wash down beds or even make them when I first came here. Nurses did that. But we changed that and by assigning our department to do those chores we were able to provide nurses a lot more time to be with their patients, instead of taking care of rooms.” “We have a role in many more parts of the hospital’s operation than we did before,” she said. “People think of housekeeping as something a maid would do. We’re much more than that. It’s a proven fact that housekeepers are around patients even more than nurses or providers. As a result, patients seem to open up more to us. I think it’s because the patient doesn’t want to bother medical staff. But they’ll talk to us about not feeling good or having pains, or being too cold. We’ll pass that information along to those who need to know those things. It used to be we were ‘out of sight.’ Now, our interaction with patients and visitors is at the point were we are looking at having our staff obtain basic nurse aide training.”

Thanks for making this such great place to receive care, to work, and to practice medicine! We are going to miss you!🙏

#GreatCare #GreatPeople #GreatPlace

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