When it comes to a medical office, people absolutely judge a book by its cover. A spotless environment that looks, feels, and smells clean is sure to impress patients and inspire trust. But the benefits of a clean medical office go well beyond that.
Apart from making your facility look good, proper hygiene will keep your medical staff, patients, and visitors safe. Depending on the area you specialize in, your patients could be particularly prone to germs and bacteria. Proper cleaning and sanitization is the only solution.
That said, we understand how hectic running a healthcare facility can get, making spotless cleaning that much harder. To help you overcome that, we’ve compiled a list of the top 4 medical office cleaning tips below.
1. Enforce Hand Washing
Let’s start with an obvious but sometimes overlooked point. Frequent hand washing is easily one of the best ways to control the spread of viruses and bacteria in your facility.
The first thing you need is to make it clear to your medical staff that hand washing is mandatory and not something to be taken lightly.
From there, it’s only a matter of nudging people by placing anti-bacterial hand wash solutions and posting signs highlighting the importance of hand washing at every important spot throughout your facility.
2. Get the Right Cleaning Products
No amount of cleaning will do the job if your cleaners are using the wrong products. The fact is, many medical office cleaners are unaware of the difference between cleaning and disinfection. The good news is that the latest technology in cleaning products has made it possible to both clean and disinfect at once.
Two common choices for cleaning solutions include quaternary ammonium compounds (Quats) and hydrogen peroxide.
Quats are hospital-grade and anti-pathogen, but require careful handling as they can be a safety hazard when used in high concentration. Whereas hydrogen peroxide is a lot less potent, but also a lot safer.
We recommend getting a specialized multipurpose solution containing hydrogen peroxide or any similar compound that’s both effective and safe for everyday usage.
Apart from the cleaning solution, your materials and equipment also require some consideration. For instance, microfiber materials are far better at trapping bacteria than something like cotton.
3. Clean and Sanitize Surfaces Regularly
Many people don’t realize this, but you’re a lot more likely to catch harmful bacteria and viruses from indirect contact, as in touching a door handle or a keyboard rather than a person.
In fact, the WHO says that indirect contact is the most frequent cause of pathogen transmission in healthcare facilities. That’s why routinely wiping down high-contact surfaces with a disinfectant is not just important but necessary.
Here’s a list of some common high-contact areas in medical facilities:
● Door and refrigerator handles
● Knobs and handles on equipment
● Pens and magazines
● Desks, tables, chairs, and other furniture
● Keyboard, mouse, and other computer equipment
● Elevator, ATM, and vending machine buttons
4. Prevent Cross-Contamination
Lastly, you need to take active steps to prevent cross-contamination in your facility.
The leading cause of cross-contamination is the cleaning equipment itself. To avoid that, make sure your cleaners thoroughly wash scrubbing pads, brushes, mops, scrapers, and any other cleaning equipment after each use. Another solution is to ditch all those items for disposable kits.
You can also color-code materials to further lower the risk of cross-contamination. The industry standard is to use red for high-risk areas like urinals, yellow for low-risk areas like sinks, and blue for normal areas like desks and windows.
Keeping a medical office spotless is tough but necessary. The above tips are just a start and you have to account for many other things.
So if you’d rather focus on serving your patients and leave the cleaning to trained professionals, get your zero-obligations quote today and let our team take care of the rest for you.
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