Decorating: latex paint over stain grade hardwood?

[ultrarunner]

Take away is it’s always easier to take the path of least resistance and go with the flow and even if you end up going over the waterfall…

Quite possible too involved as I picked out and wrote up the specs as my part of the build team in 1994 always opting for durability for the long haul and made the case it’s actually saving us money…

I won’t argue I’m not the best fit in a large enterprise and 85,000 employees is large.

Case in point if I may…

Corp decided to do a landfill waste audit enterprise wide several months back sending out teams in hazmat suits to empty, sort and document the contents of our landfill stream…

It was quite a production with different colored tarps taking up a section of cordoned off parking lot…

The audit revealed we were fully compliant and the team found nothing that shouldn’t be placed for collection… which I said before they began… they showed up twice.

The exercise was billed to my center in the amount of $25,000 for the audit.

Doing research I found one center was fined a high dollar amount for improper disposal of bloody gauze and surgical drapes so corporate legal said every site must be audited…

We redbag anything with a drop of blood for biohazard disposal and no one would place a redbag in landfill trash…

It could be as simple as engineers tend to calculating and factual and it’s my signature on each manifest…

When dollars are scarce it’s only reasonable they be allocated by substance and not fluff…

 

[ultrarunner]

How many more years to retirement?

Depends on when you ask…

I need to use up all my accumulated vacation leave first!

There is early retirement, full retirement and Medicare age retirement…

 

[2manyrocks]

Another perspective is that as long as they are happy painting for decorating purposes, maybe they aren’t messing with things that really matter?

 

[ultrarunner]

^^^ Good point… I’m doing my best not to get sucked in.

Decorating is very subjective and I made 2 suggestions… I asked the committee if they could identify the look they want from any of our other facilities… much easier when everyone agrees and no surprises when done.

The second is corp uses interior designers for new hospital builds and I suggested reaching out.

The only thing clear is the committee says what we have is dated and doesn’t pop… no glamor?

December employees were surveyed on priorities and redecorating the lobby did not even get 1 vote.

Here is the top 10.

1. Better Parking Lot lighting
2. Replace out of service equipment
3. Gourmet Coffee for staff
4. Free EV charging
5. Educational assistance for dependents.
6. New Patient Monitors
7. Seal and stripe parking lot
8. Parking lot security
9. Daily muffins/bagels
10. Staff to be able to text patients.

Based on input it’s the security in the parking lot and replacing/updating equipment.

I think when the cost numbers come in as well as the disruption to make over the lobby it will be dropped.

Let’s deep clean, paint same color and not rip out and start over.

 

[2manyrocks]

1 & 8 along with your prior post about having to clean up needles outside immediately tells me your employees are concerned about their personal safety in the parking area. That is where I'd put my attention.

 

[ultrarunner]

1 & 8 along with your prior post about having to clean up needles outside immediately tells me your employees are concerned about their personal safety in the parking area. That is where I'd put my attention.

Yes… nothing has happened but many staff commute from more affluent and even wealthy areas of the Bay Area and just having a homeless person approach with or without shopping cart asking for change at 5 am in the morning or 7 pm in the evening has resulted in more than a few finding employment elsewhere.

It was not always like this but the last 10 years it’s the reality.

The reason I start at 4 am to open after 20+ years of closing is because of the transient population…

First thing I do is clear the doorways each morning…

Some nurses will call and ask to be escorted and others just happy to see my car parked in the engineering spot.

I think it’s more that I’m 6’4” and 245 pounds compared to some staff as short as 4’8 and 90 pounds…

 

[2manyrocks]

If there are steps that could reasonably be taken to actually improve the security of the staff, that would be my priority.

 

[ultrarunner]

I proposed and provided cost to install perimeter fencing and controlled access via attendant or automated gate…

This was a few years back and the cost floored Admin.

The lighting comes up every winter when the days are short… in the summer no one mentions lighting because the daylight hours are long.

We do have overnight roving security patrol that covers before I arrive and checks in with me before leaving…

The security patrol’s main purpose is to prevent homeless camps from setting up… it costs local business tens of thousands of dollars once set up because it then requires legal court ordered eviction to remove… police won’t do anything once a camp is established.

9 pm to 5 am overnight security patrols worth every penny with costs shared by several local businesses…

 

[2manyrocks]

Maybe one way of justifying the cost of fencing/gating is to look at the cost of losing employees and/or increased costs in employee retention if it could be established that potential employees prefer to work elsewhere where the community is safer or your hospital has to pay more to induce employees to work there.

 

[EddieWalker]

How much are parking lot lights? Could you just put up a pole and attach a dawn to dusk LED light? I have several around my place and they work great. Cost of the light at Lowes is $70