In this article, we’ll explain what these six stages of cleaning healthcare clinics and how to carry them out when you clean. We’ll also cover the importance of cleaning healthcare clinic procedures, as well as how to improve the effectiveness of your cleaning activities and improve your safety while doing so. Finally, we discuss the differences between cleaning, sanitizing, and disinfecting, which are often used interchangeably but do have some differences.
6 Steps Of Cleaning Healthcare Clinic 2023
Jay Do
Why is it Important to Follow Proper Cleaning Healthcare Clinic Procedures?
- Maintaining a clean environment at your medical clinic is essential for a number of reasons:
- Both first-time visitors and regulars will find the ambiance to be quite appealing.
- It is obligatory according to OSHA.
- It safeguards the health and safety of your workers while also helping to prevent the transfer of germs from ill patients to healthy patients and vice versa.
This step may varies quite a little depending on the requirements of your facilities and the services that it provides, but in general, the following is recommended.
Some examples of health risks that may be prevented via cleaning are as follows:
- Flu and cold common virus, for example, may spread easily between people and can show up in any workplace.
- Food-borne viruses like E. coli, salmonella, and campylobacter may all be transferred via food and pose a risk in public places like hotels and restaurants.
- Hospitals and other sites where the skin is punctured, such as tattoo parlours, provide a risk for the spread of infections that may be transferred by body fluids, such as HIV. Restaurants, with their potentially allergenic menu items, are one such setting. A hypersensitive immune system may react to even trace levels of an allergen.
- The workplace may be a dangerous place for those with allergies to substances other than food because of the prevalence of non-food allergens like dust, which can cause anaphylaxis.
By maintaining an effective cleaning regimen, you may help reduce the likelihood that they will harm the health and safety of others.
6 Steps Of Cleaning Healthcare Clinic
It is very necessary to adhere to an efficient cleaning technique in order to eliminate any hazards to health and safety. It guarantees that all of the germs are removed completely, that none of them are distributed accidentally, and that any further hazards are reduced to a minimum.
1. Pre-Clean
The first thing you need to do when cleaning a surface that's been polluted is clear away any debris and chemicals that are loose on the surface. You may do this by sweeping, rinsing, or wiping with a paper towel that is disposable.
The objective here is to clear the area of as much stray material as is humanly feasible in order to get it ready for the subsequent step of cleaning.
2. Main Clean
Second-stage cleaning requires the use of abrasive tools like a scrub brush to dislodge stubborn substances, filth, oil, and debris that were missed during the first step.
This process absolutely necessitates the use of a detergent in hot water. Depending on the disinfectant, you may be allowed to remove the loosened compounds immediately using a proper implement, such as a towel or mop, or you may be forced to wait until the disinfectant has had a certain amount of contact time.
3. Rinse
All of the detergent and dirt that was loosened up in the previous step are washed away in the third and final phase of cleaning. The procedure is now complete. Cleaning using a cloth, mop, squeegee, or other tool and clean, hot water is an option.
4. Disinfection
Disinfection is the crucially important in the cleaning process, and its purpose is to eliminate any remaining germs and bacteria that may have been left behind. You may choose to sterilise an object by, for instance, exposing it to high temperatures for an extended period of time or making use of a chemical disinfectant.
Both of these options are viable options. Both of these choices are good alternatives to consider. You are required to first read all of the instructions for any product or piece of equipment before using it, and then you must follow those instructions very specifically.
5. Final Rinse
This step involves using clean, hot water to eliminate any disinfectants that may have been left over from the stage before it. However, depending on the disinfectant that you're using and the surface that you're cleaning, this step may not always be necessary. As was said in the step before this one, it is important to follow the instructions provided by the manufacturer and to look for further information if necessary.
6. Drying
The surface has to be dried, which is the sixth and last step of the cleaning process. If at all feasible, you should let the surface air dry. If there is a requirement, drying cloths may be used; however, if there is a necessity, the drying cloths should be single-use, particularly in a business context. Because germs may develop on used drying cloths, it is imperative that you do not allow these cloths to air dry and then reuse them. This will prevent the possibility of cross-contamination.
At this time, the surface will be completely cleansed, and depending on the chemicals that you employed, the vast majority of the germs will have been eliminated, if not all of them.