The Importance Of Cleaning In Health Care

Whether it's a doctor's office, outpatient clinic, ambulatory care center or a hospital, cleaning in a health care facility serves the dual purpose of providing patients and their loved ones with confidence in the medical care, as well as eliminates germs and minimizes the risk of infections that can be so prevalent in these settings.

Thoroughly cleaning health care facilities makes economic sense too. In fact, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), healthcare associated infections (HAIs) cost the US an estimated $35.7-45 billion annually and result in 1.7 million infections and almost 100,000 deaths per annum. If the obvious health benefits are not enough, the recently passed Affordable Health Care Act (also referred to as Obamacare)

Not surprisingly, the risk of infection is most acute in the hospital environment. The cleaning procedures are therefore most stringent in these settings. That being said, in every health care setting, cleaning is mission critical. Rather than delineate by facility-type, the CDC's guideline actually delineates the cleaning procedures along three major categories - critical, semi-critical and non-critical items. This categorization scheme allows all of the different health care venues to follow the same best practices, to varying degrees, based upon the level of care and procedure types they are engaging

Sterilization, on the other hand, kills all microbial life. In general, since many of the cleaning solutions and disinfectants are harmful to the environment and to janitorial staff and other employees, efforts to go green where possible are applauded, but disinfectant is necessary in certain circumstances to fully sterilize the environment. In general, the higher the risk of infection, the more stringent the disinfectant required. Importantly, all disinfectants used in a healthcare setting must be registered with the EPA.

Critical and Semi-Critical Items

The first two categories encompass most medical tools and instruments that come into contact with the patients, particularly those in labs, operating rooms and acute care settings. The guidelines include very specific cleaning and sterilization requirements that vary by tool for equipment that ranges from laparoscopes, arthroscopes and endoscopes to mouthpieces and tubing. The cleaning solutions used in an operating room, for example, need to contain at least.5 percent chlorine and the tools and instruments need to soak in an approved disinfectant.

Non-Critical