Detroit Michigan Janitorial & Cleaning Services Blog

Is Your Medical Cleaning DOA?

Written by Chris Stathakis | Wed, Aug 16, 2017 @ 01:41 AM

Medical Cleaning Requires a Trained Specialist

Unlike basic office cleaning, in a hospital or medical setting, there is no room for mistakes. Certainly everyone appreciates a job well done, but in a healthcare setting, it is imperative. There is simply too much to lose as lives and reputations hang in the balance to risk the wrong janitorail company. Likewise, medical facilities have far more complex compliance and regulatory issues that if not followed to the letter, leave a facility open to fines, litigation and worse. In order to find and partner with the most professional and effective medical cleaning service, you must identify those companies that offer technology-based healthcare cleaning that balances the many different factors medical facilities must consider. Whether you manage a hospital, clinic, ambulatory surgical center, medical offices, nursing home or other related facility you need a healthcare cleaning service that champions your industry by familiarizing themselves with your compliance requirements, applying innovation and technology to the cleaning equation, managing risk, meeting budget requirements and delivering the most safe, effective and efficient medical janitorial services. Medical cleaning is a specialty and not for beginners. It requires professionalism, knowledge and a willingness to follow industry best practices.

 

Compliance Issues Increase the Need For Professional Medical Cleaning Services

Medical janitorial services are different from general office cleaning in a number of ways. First, regulatory and compliance issues are much more prevalent in the medical and healthcare industry. From OSHA to HIPAA to your HCAHPS and everything in between, if your commercial cleaning company doesn’t understand the specific requirements of your industry, they will not offer the level of service and professionalism you and your facility require. Second, many medical facilities run around the clock, meaning cleaning and maintenance that is not planned and scheduled with care and an understanding of your operations can interfere with the smooth running of your facility and patient and staff perception. Third, your needs as a healthcare facility are infinitely more complex than general cleaning and go well beyond emptying trashes and vacuuming. The right janitorial services company will offer both breadth and depth of experience servicing medical and health care facilities. A prospective healthcare cleaning service should already have experience servicing your industry as well as a basic understanding of your compliance requirements as a minimum. If a janitorial company is new to medical cleaning, YOU will be there training ground. Sure everyone starts somewhere but you shouldn’t have to train your cleaning company and their people on top of the many responsibilities you already shoulder.

 

The Vitals of Medical Office Cleaning

Sure different medical facilities require different things, but certainly, there are a set of minimums and requirements that apply to ALL healthcare facilities. Prospective medical cleaning services must have a solid understanding of the distinct requirements of medical cleaning. A janitorial services company that is vying for your business must have measurable experience cleaning and maintaining other healthcare accounts. Potential healthcare cleaning services must be willing to align their experience with your specific needs to deliver effective, responsive healthcare cleaning. There can be no one size fits all solutions with regard to medical office cleaning. Any eventual medical office cleaning service must understand and comply with all appropriate safety requirements and regulations. You and your facility cannot be put in a position of risk because your janitorial company is unaware of compliance issues. They must also make their people processes, including screening, hiring, training and managing their teams, THE priority. A medical cleaning service is a service business after all and the heart of any service business is their people. Finally, prospective medical cleaning companies must offer transparent pricing. Not only do you deserve to view medical cleaning quotes in an apples to apples kind of way, a clear medical cleaning quote offers a way for your medical office cleaning services and you to stay on the same page with regard to expectations.

  

Finding The Right Medical Office Cleaning Service

Exceptional service never happens by accident, it is cultivated with an intention and a plan. Because of the unique requirements of medical office cleaning, you do not want a company new to medical cleaning using your facility as their training ground, it’s simply too risky. What you really need is a seasoned professional who has already made their mistakes and worked out service kinks many moons ago and on someone else’s facility. The right medical cleaning companies offer proven systems and processes that guarantee a level of reliability through accountability. What do these systems and processes look like? What should you require of your medical janitorial services?

  • An recognition of the importance of security through carefully vetted employees
  • An established and documented standard for employee safety training
  • A history of compliance with required and recommended industry-specific training
  • Systems and processes in place to assure responsive service
  • An established track record of following industry best practices
  • A host of systems, procedure and tools to keep service on target. These might include elements like regular client communications through apps and reporting, financial documentation, service request tracking and a response guarantees to get you the information you need quickly.
  • CIMS certification or other relevant industry certifications
  • An ability and willingness to customize scheduling to fit your facility requirements
  • An affordable, effective green cleaning program
  • The capability to provide both contract medical cleaning services and other maintenance services
  • An ability to staff up or down to meet changing needs

Highly effective medical cleaning companies sweat the small stuff as much as the bigger stuff because they know it all adds up to the difference between good and great. They utilize systems and processes because they know that medical cleaning requires it in order to deliver solid work with any assurances of consistency and reliability.

  

Like A General Practitioner, a Building Services Contractor Can Offer More

It is hard work finding the right building services company or janitorial service company for your healthcare cleaning. Between verifying systems and processes, checking references, confirming insurance, assuring legal hiring practices, it can be a long, time consuming process. So it can be useful to consider what a medical cleaning company might offer your facility beyond the cleaning itself. Why? Because once you have done all the upfront work, a commercial cleaning company that offers a larger menu of services can be a huge time and hassle saver for you as a Facility Manager. If you already have a medical office cleaning service you trust, how much easier would it be to use them for related maintenance? Does the healthcare cleaning company you are considering service all types of medical and healthcare facilities? Can they provide Day Porter service should you need them? Do they offer special project managers and help for requirements you may have beyond healthcare cleaning? Can they help you with other maintenance and preventative maintenance issues? Having the capacity to offer related maintenance can make a commercial cleaning company an invaluable resource. What services do many building services companies offer?

▪   Carpet care

▪   Hard Surface Floor Care

▪   Window Cleaning

▪   Construction Clean-up

▪   Day Porter Services

▪   Computer Room Cleaning                    

▪   Lighting Maintenance

▪   Emergency Services

▪   General Maintenance

▪   Green Cleaning

▪   Pressure Washing

▪   Recycling Services                                 

▪   Restroom Sanitation

▪   Painting Services

  

With Healthcare Cleaning Services, Better Isn’t Necessarily More Expensive

Don’t settle for so-so medical cleaning services just because you are grappling with a less than optimal budget. Quite often it is the larger, more experienced and resourced cleaning companies that can help you squeeze every dollar from your cleaning. It seems counter intuitive that a better company will do more work for less but those companies are often the most experienced, systemized and trained to save you money while delivering more. Between Smart Cleaning, efficient, effective equipment and experience with livable cost-savings measures, sometimes better doesn’t necessarily cost any more. If you are managing a facility with razor thin budgets, you likely won’t get everything you want but you may be able to get everything you need to keep your facility running smoothly and looking good. 

 

Get A Clean Bill Of Health In Your Facility With Effective Medical Office Cleaning Services

At Stathakis, we are honored to serve the medical community of Southeastern Michigan. Not only are we committed to following best practices with regard to our health care cleaning services, we have been at the forefront of developing and setting the standard for professional, effective, affordable and customer focused service. From state of the art equipment to green cleaning products to professional systems and process that assure reliability through accountability, we are committed to helping you maintain your facility at the highest levels, protecting your reputation and your bottom line.  At Stathakis, we are an  ISSA CIMS-GB certified company and have been anchored in the local community for over 35 years. CIMS assures our customers that our processes are among the industry's best. Not only do we follow industry best practices, we set them. If you are looking to outsource your commercial cleaning or need to level up with your current medical cleaning, please contact us at 1-800-278-1884 to speak with a member of our team to get your questions answered and see if we might be able to help you and your facility shine.