When Medical Cleaning Services Fall Short, People Get Sick

Having a clean and welcoming facility is important whatever your business is, but nowhere is cleanliness more critical than in your medical and healthcare facilities. Patients and families come to you for care, so the last thing they want is to see facilities that look less than clean. And a lack of cleanliness in a medical facility can have far reaching impacts beyond just perceptions. Every year, people seeking medical care acquire serious infections called health care-associated infections (HAIs). HAIs are serious complications and can be very difficult to treat and even deadly. If your medical office cleaning services or hospital cleaning company isn’t cleaning your facility effectively, they could be gambling with patient health and your facility’s reputation. Your healthcare cleaning service plays a big part in reducing the risk and transmission of infections. In fact, the CDC, or Centers For Disease Control advises Facility Managers in medical settings to minimize the spread of many HAIs by confirming their medical cleaning company is following the CDC recommendations, including the use of EPA-approved disinfectants and best practices. 

Just Because A Medical Facility Looks Clean, Doesn’t Mean It IS Clean

Of course you want patients, families, staff and practitioners to walk into your medical facility and see a clean and well maintained vista. But even more important is what they cannot see. Disease causing germs and microbes lurk out of sight but their potential negative impact is significant. Infection control is a critical component of patient health and the reputation and overall safety of your medical facility. It isn’t enough for your medical office cleaning service to do a once over, your facility must be cleaned using the principles of the science of clean. This means best practices like color coded rags and microfiber floor cleaning are used to prevent the risk of cross contamination. It also means chemical cleaners are EPA approved and used correctly. For instance, did you know that most cleaners require a dwell time where they are allowed to sit wet on a surface in order to provide maximum effectiveness? If medical cleaning companies don’t train their cleaners to use products as specified, you aren’t getting the level of cleaning needed in a medical facility.

Why Healthcare Cleaning Is Different

A clean facility is an important component of the reputation of any facility and it’s tenants or occupants. But there are two businesses that customers look to cleanliness as a sure sign of quality or the lack thereof, that is food service and medical facilities. If a retail store is dirty, you might still purchase that consumer good. But if your doctor’s office is dirty and unmaintained and you look around and see sick people touching surfaces that look like they are not routinely cleaned, you are likely to seek service elsewhere. Those seeking medical services are already feeling vulnerable giving control of their health to a physician and health care team, add to that the idea that your health care team might not be clean and you have a recipe for panic and distrust. Cleaning in a facility is substantially different than general cleaning, but how do we know that we are getting solid medical cleaning that provides the required assurances of health and safety? Michigan medical cleaning requires extensive experience with other medical cleaning accounts, a detailed plan and staff that are trained to understand and respond to the unique needs of a medical facility. In order to get most effective health care cleaning, you need to determine what matters to you most beyond the basics. Do you have tight budgets to consider? Does your facility have a green cleaning mandate? Do you have compliance issues that your medical cleaning company must understand and adhere to? Understanding what you are looking for will make it much easier to find it in the overcrowded janitorial marketplace.

Diagnosing the Problems With Your Current Medical Cleaning

Maybe your current medical company just doesn’t understand how improper cleaning can impact patients and providers. Some medical office cleaning companies don’t have the first clue about complex compliance requirements. Maybe you started with pretty good service from your medical office cleaning but lately they just haven’t been getting the job done at the level needed. Perhaps you have fielded complaints from tenants or staff, or worse, patients. You are not wrong to be troubled by the risk infectious diseases and subpar cleaning can have in your facility. Maybe you have a tight janitorial budget and think this is the best you can do, but you’d be wrong. Quite often, the most effective, experienced medical cleaning companies cost nearly the same as the not so great ones and deliver much, much more in terms of value for the budget you DO have. Outsourcing your environmental services to an experienced medical cleaning company with demonstrated past success in medical cleaning is the first step. And know that medical offices that are clean and look it are much more likely to earn high marks from patients, repeat business, referrals all adding up to a reputation that draws the best providers and practitioners creating a positive feedback loop that creates a laudable reputation.

Get A Clean Bill of Health With Effective Healthcare Cleaning Services

When trying to find the right medical cleaning company with which to partner, it is important your janitorial company:

• Conducts regular safety compliance training for OSHA, HIPPA, & Blood borne Pathogens
• Utilizes EPA approved, spore killing disinfectant cleaning agents
• Is well aware of and trains their teams on the correct use of disinfectants in order to achieve optimal infection control
• Comes equipped with considerable experience working in hospitals and other medical environments
• Is compliant compliance with all federal, state, and local regulations
• Works hard to bring on people who are a good fit in medical facilities and trains/equips them for success.
• Provides both general training and specific healthcare cleaning training to the teams in your facility

Enlist A Specialist With CIMS Certified Medical Janitorial Services

It can be understandably challenging to find the commercial cleaning company that is prepared to deliver the needed level of expertise in your facility. But there is an easy and free shortcut to determining which companies are set up for success. Much like doctors have Board Certification, building services contractors have CIMS. CIMS or the Cleaning Industry Management Standard is an industry certification that defines a medical cleaning company as following those best practices that have been determines to lead to positive outcomes. CIMS certification is a demanding process that requires that a janitorial services company demonstrate proficiency and compliance in a number of areas critical to quality service delivery. When looking for a new cleaning company to care for your facility, we suggest you make your list from CIMS certified companies and then do further due diligence to create your short list.

From there, you can do walk throughs and issue RFP to determine value and cost. While it isn’t easy, it is a more streamlined, more effective way to find a commercial cleaning company that understands the rigors needed in medical cleaning so that they may service your facility in a way that makes your life easier and protects the health of your facility’s occupants and your facility’s reputation.