John Krolicki, vice president of Facilities and Support Services, calls the EVS training program “my biggest accomplishment. It not only makes UPMC hospitals cleaner and safer but also changes people’s lives. It has reduced employee turnover and raised patient satisfaction. It’s a win all around.”
The seed for the EVS program was planted back in 2016, when Mr. Krolicki recognized that training for EVS associates needed to improve. “When associates were hired, some of them had never really been in a patient room,” he says. “They were not used to seeing people hooked up to ventilators or IVs, and that could be overwhelming for them.
“I thought, ‘Why don’t we invest in our employees and create a training program with a curriculum that really prepares them for hospital work?’ ”
The idea took off when Mr. Krolicki was introduced to the Energy Innovation Center Institute (EICI), a nonprofit that provides employment opportunities and life skills in the former Connelley Trade School Downtown. Together, they developed a course — and UPMC supported it with an investment of over $1 million to construct training rooms that look like hospital patient and operating rooms.