Twenty-two to 23 people in housekeeping cover three shifts at Memorial Hospital. For the past year, they have answered to environmental services manager Sean Breckenridge of Marysville-based Scioto Services.

Scioto Services is a professional cleaning company under contract with the hospital.

"We have a kind of unique situation in our department where we have some hospital members and some Scioto Services members as well," said Breckenridge.

Sixty percent of the housekeeping staff is employed by the hospital, working side-by-side with the 40 percent of the staff hired by Scioto Services.

"That was a challenge at first, but we have worked through it and things are working really well," said Breckenridge during an April report to the hospital board of trustees.

One big challenge he faced at Memorial Hospital 13 months ago, he said on May 5, was the whispering and rumors created by people fearful of losing their jobs.

"They thought I was going to come in and run everybody off and replace them with Scioto Services," he said.

Olas A. (Chip) Hubbs III, president and chief executive officer at the hospital, made it clear to the team that would not happen.

When the board made the decision to outsource the housekeeping department, Hubbs said, it struck a deal with Scioto Services that existing staff members had a choice of remaining as hospital employees or switching to Scioto Services.

"I don't know that there was an advantage to switching," he said.

Another part of the deal was that anyone hired in the future would be a Scioto Services employee.

It may take 20 years, Hubbs said, but eventually all housekeeping staff members will be Scioto Services employees.

Breckenridge said Hubbs made it clear to the team that no one would be pushed out.

"He has held true to that," said Breckenridge.

Generally, he said, housekeeping, which also includes hazardous waste, has a high turnover rate, but some of the hospital employees have held the same position since 1994.

"They have a lot of experience," said Breckenridge.

The professional cleaning company got its start in the late 1970s and grew with Honda.

Breckenridge joined Scioto Services two years ago. He most recently worked with Target in Columbus and spent time traveling to the East Coast from his home in Hilliard.

"My mentor in that business died too young from a heart attack," he said. "I was burnt out. I wanted to make a change"

Breckenridge said his wife of more than 18 years, Carla, was also instrumental in his decision to work closer to home.

She did not like it when he was called to work on Christmas and had to be away from his family.

The Breckenridges have three children: Diego, who is a senior at Bishop Ready High School, 12-year-old Briena, who is in middle school, and Baillie, 6, who is in elementary school.