VCU Health has tapped a new contractor to handle cleaning services at the health system’s downtown Richmond acute-care facilities. (BizSense file photo)
One vendor is out and another is on the way in to take over a lucrative cleaning services contract at VCU Health’s Richmond facilities.
HHS Environmental Services has been awarded the contract to provide clinical cleaning and disinfection services at acute-care facilities on the VCU Health downtown campus, a job that has most recently been handled by Pennsylvania-based Crothall Healthcare.
HHS officially starts working at the VCU Health facilities Nov. 1. The company has a three-year contract with VCU Health, and the health system is paying about $26 million for the first year, according to VCU Health spokeswoman Danielle Pierce.
“This transition reflects our continued commitment to delivering exceptional patient experiences, maintaining the highest standards of cleanliness and infection prevention, and ensuring operational excellence across our health system,” Pierce said in a prepared statement. “VCU Health, Crothall and HHS will work together to support a smooth transition and uninterrupted operations.”
Crothall notified the state in late August that its contract to clean VCU Health’s downtown facilities is ending and that it will be laying off 545 of its local employees as a result. The layoffs are anticipated to take effect Oct. 31.
Crothall employees are being directed to apply for jobs with HHS, and HHS intends to hire many of them, according to Derek Kissos, the company’s chief growth officer of healthcare.
“We have to do the administrative process, to make sure we’re crossing all the T’s and dotting all the I’s. But our approach, whether it’s with VCU Health or any organization we service, is to retain 100% of the frontline employees,” Kissos told BizSense.
Kissos said HHS plans to have a greater number of employees on VCU Health’s downtown campus compared with Crothall but declined to share details about what the ultimate headcount would be.
“We absolutely added full-time equivalent positions to this bid, more so than what was in the current incumbent’s program. A substantial add. VCU Health leadership came to all the vendors as part of this process, explained their needs, and their need was they wanted to improve the quality and the cleanliness of the facility, the safety for their patients and the safety for their staff,” Kissos said. “We were not by any stretch the cheapest vendor. We bid the most staff.”
The VCU Health contract marks an uptick in HHS operations in central Virginia.
Kissos said the company also provides services at Bon Secours and other healthcare provider facilities in the region. He estimated that HHS has about 500 employees in Richmond, Henrico and Chesterfield, not including the new VCU Health contract.
HHS typically operates its administrative offices out of its clients’ facilities. However, the company is weighing potentially leasing a stand-alone office to support its local operations.
HHS has more than 900 healthcare-industry clients that operate more than 10,000 facilities across the country, Kissos said. HHS also offers services to companies in aviation, hospitality and senior living. In addition to housekeeping, HHS provides dining, laundry, facilities management and other services to clients.
In Virginia, Crothall will continue to provide services at VCU Health Community Memorial Hospital in South Hill and at VCU Health Tappahannock Hospital. Crothall didn’t respond to a request for comment.
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