The cleaning and maintenance of medical facilities is much more complex than for instance, general office cleaning. Whether you manage Medical Offices, an Urgent Care center, a Medical Clinic or Physician’s Offices, you need a level of expertise beyond the basics. If your medical janitorial services do little more than a superficial cleaning in your facility, not only will they contribute to the spread of common illnesses like cold, flus and respiratory illnesses, subpar cleaning can result in serious complications and even death. It is simply a fact that when you manage health care facilities like Nursing Homes, Assisted Living Facilities, Surgical Centers, Dialysis Centers and more, the stakes are higher. What exactly are the stakes? HAIs, also known as Health care-associated infections, strike as many as 2 million people annually, yet over a third of these instances are thought to be preventable if the recommended infection control procedures were followed. You deserve a medical cleaning service willing and able to offer you cleaning and maintenance specifically tailored to your industry and the complex set of requirements that govern it.
Don’t be fooled into thinking cleaning is a no-brainer that almost anyone can do. Sure, anyone can probably empty a trashcan and dust a desk, but that isn’t what medical office cleaning is about. Medical janitorial services requires a firm understanding of aseptic cleaning, the precise requirements of clean versus aseptic, versus sterile. Likewise, hospital housekeeping services require the knowledge of exactly how the various products, from disinfectants, to sanitizers to detergents are designed to be used. Aseptic cleaning is applied in a variety of clinical settings to avert the spread of pathogens. The chief purpose of the aseptic technique is to limit harmful organisms from spreading and causing infection. In a medical facility, hospital or healthcare setting, cleaning teams need training and education to be able to effectively clean a facility administering medical and health care services. A medical office cleaning service and their employees must understand critical and non-critical cleaning and elements like disinfecting protocols, appropriate product usage, specific product directions, dwell times and even when and where personal protective equipment must be used. Additionally, your Michigan medical cleaning company needs to use Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-approved, hospital-grade cleaning and disinfectant products wherever required. Equally, terminal cleaning comprises an essential piece of the infection control puzzle by limiting the spread of infection-causing pathogens that can contribute to health care-associated infections (HAIs). Terminal cleaning done properly can rapidly diminish the level of disease causing microorganisms on oft touched areas areas like remote controls, light switches, telephones, door handles, tables, computer terminals and rails.
HAIs, HCAHPS, CDC and AORN requirements weigh heavily on medical facilities. Medical and hospital cleaning requires that your health care cleaning service do their part or patient safety, confidence, HCAHPS scores and your reputation could all suffer. The Hospital Consumer Assessments of "Healthcare Providers and Systems” survey, or HCAHPS, offers a patient assessment of the quality of heath care services that can reduce reimbursements for low rated providers. On the HCAHPS assessment, the cleanliness of the medical setting is a significant item with it’s own rating. And as healthcare facilities see higher numbers of patients, Healthcare Associated Infections (HAIS) create another cause for concern among patients, their families and health care workers. With most medical facilities now required to provide information on their rates of infection, patients and their families are aware of the importance of a clean facility when seeking medical treatments of all kinds. With the requirements of HIPPA, HCAHPS, OSHA (Occupational Safety & Health Administration), CDC (Centers for Disease Control) recommendations, AORN (Association of Perioperative Registered Nurses) recommendations, Blood Borne Pathogen Training and other healthcare and hospital cleaning requirements, is your Michigan medical cleaning company what they must to help your health care facility healthy get a clean bill of health?
As a Facility Manager charged with keeping a medical facility or facilities on track, you want a janitorial services company that will help you get a clean bill of health-- not flat line. Professional certifications like the CIMS, or Cleaning Industry Management Standard, can help you identify medical cleaning companies that are set up to deliver the level of service and compliance you require. Much like physicians are board certified to denote a specific specialty and mastery, cleaning and janitorial services companies can obtain certifications that show a mastery and level of experience and professionalism in specific, critical areas of their business, areas that greatly impact the service they provide you. CIMS certification demonstrates a solid commitment to industry best practices, innovation, training and responsiveness to the customers. For a Medical Facility Manager, CIMS offers a priceless resource in the search for medical janitorial services that meet the complex needs of a healthcare facility. CIMS certification offers a shortcut to establish a short list of medical office cleaning services that can serve as your starting point. CIMS effectively allows you to weed out those companies just not established or professional enough to meet the demands of a medical facility.
While the commercial cleaning market is a crowded one, finding the right company to clean and maintain your medical facility can be tough. Understanding that not every janitorial services company can deliver what you need is the first hurdle. Then you must find those companies that understand the issues that make healthcare cleaning more challenging and are committed to using best practices and the highest levels of compliance and safety to help you and your facility thrive.