A recent housekeeping audit at Burnaby Hospital came back with a failing grade for some areas in the facility.
The March 29 audit - part of regular monthly audits that occur at sites around the health region - came back with an overall score of 83 per cent, two per cent shy of the provincial benchmark of 85 per cent.
But some areas of the hospital actually scored above the benchmark line - areas deemed "very high risk," including the intensive care unit and operating rooms, received a score of 87 per cent.
Low-risk areas, such as administrative offices and maintenance spaces, received the lowest grades at 72 per cent.
Spaces that are more directly related to patient health and infection control are more heavily weighted when the overall score is calculated.
Fraser Health Authority spokesperson Roy Thorpe-Dorward told the NOW that the audits weren't sparked by the recent concerns about ongoing C. difficile infections but are part of the hospital's normal routine.
However, he said that any time an audit shows a mark below the benchmark, it's taken seriously - though also with an eye to overall trends.
"The standards in B.C. (for benchmarks) are the highest in the country, but we do expect our sites to adhere to those," he said. "These scores are based on one audit and, of course, they vary over time - the best measure is to look at trends over time."
For example, he noted that Burnaby Hospital scored just above 85 per cent overall on the previous month's audit and 86 per cent for the full 2011 year.
"The next full year will be compiled and released in late August or September," he noted.
The audits are performed by Westech Systems and are carried out monthly but at non-scheduled times without prior notification to staff. Areas inspected include doors, walls, ceilings, vents, flooring, carpeting, baseboards, windows, beds and stretchers, clinical equipment, furnishings, light fixtures, phones, sinks, toilets and more.
After the March 29 audit, the report was looked at by hospital administration and the cleaning contractor, Aramark, and a repeat audit was performed on Wednesday of this week.
In the re-audit, the overall score jumped to 86.43 per cent.
"So, looking at this and talking to the contractor, what we think is that in focusing on the high-risk areas over the last weeks (during the deep cleaning to limit C. difficile infection), there's a possibility that the low-risk areas weren't paid as close attention to," said Thorpe-Dorward.
In late February, a letter written by several of the hospital's head doctors to the Fraser Health Authority about ongoing infection outbreaks was made public. In it, the doctors said that the hospital had a persistent problem with outbreaks of Clostridium difficile - a highly infectious bacteria that causes diarrhea, nausea and dehydration - among patients at a rate that topped regional or national averages.
The letter sparked a deep-cleaning at the hospital through March, and the introduction of several new measures to limit the spread of C. difficile.
Thorpe-Dorward said that the most recent infection numbers are promising.
"The honest answer is that it is too early to say (how effective the response has been) - it takes time to show up," he said. "But it does look good so far."
