Visually, a hospital room, operating theatre or bathroom may seem clean. However, a microbial clean is much different and this is what needs attention to avoid infectious outbreaks.

Correct and modern day hospital cleaning equipment should be used in order to combat the war against bacteria and healthcare acquired infections. Regular, outbreak and infectious cleans are crucial to this.

Here are some modern day, best practices for hospital cleaning:

• Take care of spills as soon as possible
  Cleaning up of spills, such as urine stains and other bodily fluids, is crucial to a regular healthcare cleaning process. The longer these types of infectious spills are left unattended, the more chance they have of spreading bacteria. Follow a best practice spills management process and implement this into your regular cleaning system. A floor scrubber is an ideal tool to use for spills management.

• Avoid Cross Contamination:
  One of the biggest challenges for cleaning staff is to avoid cross contamination. A sufficient method is implementing a best practice hand hygiene routine. Also, disposing of microfibre cloths and not using the same cleaning materials in a bathroom and then in a patient room is crucial.

• Avoid mops and buckets:
  Mops and buckets are some of the most inefficient cleaning tools that a hospital can use. A hospital is a highly infectious environment. Whilst a mop may be suitable to use on occasion when cleaning a hotel room or a hallway floor, it shouldn’t be used in a healthcare facility. A hospital floor cleaner, such as a steam floor scrubber is some of the more modern technologies. It scrubs, washes, steams and dries all floors and picks up dirt and grime rather than moving it around.

• Focus on touch point cleaning:
  High-touched areas, such as bed rails, door knobs, phones, light switches and remote controls should be cleaned frequently to kill bacteria and stop the spread of infection. A modern hospital cleaning machine, such as a steam vapour cleaning machine is ideal for such touch point cleaning tasks.

• Clean Bathrooms:
  Again, a modern hospital steam cleaning machine can be advantageous to sanitise a bathroom by destroying mould spores, germs, viruses, dust mites, and bacteria. Also, remember the correct bathroom cleaning workflow when cleaning these areas. Work your way around the bathroom in a clockwise direction, from top to bottom. Always leave the cleaning of the toilet last.

Learn more about effective cleaning methods and best practice hospital cleaning equipment by taking a look at our dedicated healthcare cleaning website.