There are people in every hospital whose work you may not always see but whose impact you feel immediately.
For more than 14 years, Latisha Johnson has been one of those people at FMOL Health | St. Dominic as a member of the environmental services team.
She works in labor & delivery, mother–baby and the NICU, caring for spaces where some of life’s most fragile and sacred moments unfold.
Every shift, she prepares 48 rooms in an eight-hour day. She cleans patient rooms. She mops, wipes, sanitizes high-touch surfaces and follows strict infection prevention standards that protect mothers and newborns alike.
But to Latisha, it’s not just about cleaning.
“It’s the drive of what I love to do,” she says. “Just knowing that I’m helping out the hospital.”
In the first episode of E.J. IRL, President & CEO E.J. Kuiper set out to understand exactly what that means by trying out Latisha’s role himself.
A Day in Her Shoes
When E.J. and Administrative Fellow Caroline Kennedy shadowed Latisha at St. Dominic, they didn’t just observe her work.
They did the work.
Together, they prepared a patient room, learned proper chemical “kill times,” practiced hand hygiene protocols and discovered quickly that environmental services is as much skill as it is service.
Latisha walked E.J. and Caroline through the seven steps of cleaning an occupied room, plus the eighth required for discharge. She showed them how to identify high-touch surfaces like telephones, bed rails and doorknobs, and E.J. and Caroline learned how to make an OB bed with perfect hospital corners. In the NICU, Latisha taught them how to mop using a figure-eight motion.
And when it came time to clean a patient bathroom, Latisha didn’t go easy on E.J.
After dropping a towel in the toilet mid-task, E.J. got hands-on experience scrubbing. He also received quick correction from Latisha when he used the same towel to wipe a pillow after cleaning a table.
Infection prevention isn’t about what looks clean. It’s about what is clean.
At the end of the day, E.J. wrote Latisha a note that captured what many feel after spending time with her.
“Latisha, I may have missed a spot or two today, but what you do each day is flawless. Thank you for showing me how you healthcare. Your dedication, skill and heart make a difference for our patients.”
It’s a lighthearted line, but it carries a deeper truth.
A Calling Rooted in Experience
Latisha didn’t begin her career at St. Dominic’s. She was working at another hospital when she came to visit a friend who had a loved one admitted.
“This hospital seemed deeply clean,” she recalls. “I could see myself working here.”
She made the move soon after and has been here ever since.
What keeps her here isn’t just the work. It’s the culture.
“The experience, you know, it’s everything,” she says. “Friendly environment. Everybody gets along, and it makes you feel welcome.”
That sense of belonging matters especially because Latisha’s life outside the hospital is equally full.
She is the mother of an adult son with disabilities. When her shift ends, her caregiving doesn’t. Her son, Deshawn, spent seven months in a NICU, an experience that shapes how Latisha sees her work today.
“It just takes me down memory lane,” she says of cleaning the NICU. “That’s why I want to keep it so clean.”
For Latisha, infection prevention isn’t policy. It’s personal.
Excellence in Every Detail
A typical day for Latisha starts before most people notice.
She prepares her cart with chemicals, water and equipment. She makes sure everything is ready. She begins with center-core and first-impression cleaning before moving into patient rooms.
And she does it all with remarkable efficiency.
“She’s the cream of the crop,” says Patsy Tennon, senior director of environmental services at St. Dominic’s. “She manages her time. She doesn’t complain. She comes with solutions not problems.”
When Latisha is out, Patsy says, people notice.
“I get calls asking where she is.”
When Leadership Listens
While discussing overnight floor care in the hallways, Patsy rolled out one of the department’s push floor cleaners, nicknamed “Jeremy,” after St. Dominic market president Jeremy Tinnerello.
Latisha presented E.J. with a broom and dustpan labeled with his name, suggesting he might want to stick with that instead.
E.J. had imagined something a little different. More ride-on. More… Zamboni.
When Patsy explained that kind of equipment wasn’t in the budget, E.J. asked her to price one out and committed on the spot to signing the paperwork.
In a department where cleanliness scores consistently reach 99 out of 100, investments like these reflect a deeper understanding: Environmental services is not separate from the care team.
It is the care team.
Mission in Motion
Every mother recovering. Every newborn learning to breathe outside the womb. Every family walking into a clean room.
Dignity and safety begin long before a physician enters.
The work may look routine to some. To Latisha, it’s her mission. And she carries it out with excellence.
