Every type of facility must adhere to certain cleanliness standards and healthcare facilities most of all. Healthcare institutions like hospitals process and retain countless individuals, many of whom harbor transmissible diseases and/or are susceptible to further illness from others and their surrounding environment. It’s imperative, then, that these facilities constantly remain clean and sanitary for the benefit of all patients, staff, and visitors. Let’s go over how to make sure your hospital setting is properly cleaned on a regular basis.

Train Cleaning Staff in Healthcare Cleaning Regulations

Those tasked with performing hospital cleaning procedures must receive rigorous, often specialized training to complete their tasks safely, efficiently, and in compliance with relevant regulations. Indeed, there are many cleaning guidelines for healthcare facilities as outlined by organizations like the CDC and OSHA. Your cleaning staff members must receive structured training and education that goes over a wide variety of key topics such as:

• How pathogens transmit

• How to protect oneself and others from pathogens

• The role cleaning staff plays in protecting all hospital occupants and the real cost of neglecting these tasks

• Facility layout and orientation

• How to use and store cleaning supplies and equipment

• When and how to use various cleaning solutions, disinfectants, etc.

• The different approaches to cleaning hospital rooms (e.g., occupied, turnover, terminal)

• ...and much, much more

The details of your training and education program will depend on your facility’s specific needs and operations and may be subject to change based on industry developments, so it’s important to perform regular assessments, provide re-training, and so on.

Provide Proper Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

All hospital cleaning measures require the correct use of PPE to keep cleaning staff safe on the job. If you want to ensure that your hospital is cleaned properly, then your facility must maintain an ample supply of these crucial items, such as vinyl gloves, face masks/shields, ventilators, foot protection, and more.

Establish an Optimal Hospital Cleaning Schedule

No matter the type of facility in question, maintaining a clean facility largely depends on sticking to a strict, detailed, and optimized schedule. Each member of your hospital cleaning staff should be fully aware of their specific duties and when and how to perform them. Creating a clear hospital cleaning checklist is a good starting point -- from there, it’s a matter of prioritizing tasks in terms of frequency and necessity and dividing these duties among your staff, so every task is completed on time and without interference. Today, installing a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) for your hospital is the best way to create, adjust, and streamline a hospital cleaning schedule as well as oversee other important maintenance tasks.

Maintain the Necessary Resources for Cleaning and Disinfection

Finally, proper hospital cleaning cannot occur if your facility isn’t equipped with the right-sized workforce. Hiring and retaining the optimal amount of hospital cleaning staff can be challenging for several reasons, not the least of which includes that hospital occupancy can fluctuate wildly from interval to interval. This past year’s COVID-19 pandemic is a testament to this challenge as emergency rooms across the world found themselves approaching or reaching capacity in short order, requiring increased output from hospital janitorial services and disinfection specialists. It’s wise to have a contingency plan in place to handle sudden surges like this, so you don’t end up shorthanded. You might, for instance, partner with an outsourced hospital cleaning service like The Budd Group that you can turn to when you require additional part-time cleaning staff or full-time recruits.

Keep Your Hospital Clean and Compliant

Plenty of time and effort goes into maintaining a safe and sanitary healthcare facility. At The Budd Group, our experienced teams can relieve much of this burden through our facility support, training, and recruitment offerings, janitorial services, and more. To learn more about our services and values, give us a call today at 800-221-8158!