Medical Facility Cleaning: All-In-One Cleaning Risks To Hospitals

Worker’s and patient’s health and safety are essential when cleaning your facility. In the medical industry, the most significant risk to patient’s and worker’s is HAI’s. If you are not familiar with HAI’s, it stands for Hospital Acquired Infections. Some hospitals like one in Pennsylvania switched their cleaning solution to a new one that contained Hydrogen Peroxide, peroxyacetic acid, and acetic acid. This was an all in one cleaning solution but left some people with symptoms of burning eyes, nose, throat, headache and skin burns. 

The product according to the EPA is a registered non-bleach sporicide that was advertised as a one-step cleaning, disinfectant, and deodorizer. What the EPA found after a lengthy study in more than 500 hospitals nationwide; was in most cases an all-in-one cleaner was not harmful to the users. In some cases where the mixture of HP and PAA which are powerful oxidants workers had adverse reactions to these chemicals.

How do you protect workers and patients?

The first step is to evaluate if switching from your current products to and all-in-one is worth it. In many cases, bringing in an outside Medical Facility Cleaning company is a better solution. For hospitals, environmental services should be aware of any change in cleaning chemicals and procedures.

Factor 1:

Hospitals should implement a reporting system that allows workers to quick report any symptoms. These symptoms typically show up in respiratory, skin or eye symptoms.

Factor 2:

Another factor to consider before using an all-in-one solution is a risk assessment for HAI’s throughout the hospital. There are going to be many areas that have a lower exposure to HAI’s. These areas should be carefully assessed.

Factor 3:

Physicians should be aware of the change in cleaning solutions and all potential adverse health side effects. Patients that are staying at the hospital and outpatients may have sensitivities to hard chemicals in general.

This may not seem like a huge problem, but according to PatientCarelink.com 1.7 million infections and 99,000 deaths per year are associated with HAI’s. 

•   32 percent of all healthcare-acquired infection are urinary tract infections
• 22 percent are surgical site infections
• 15 percent are pneumonia (lung infections)
• 14 percent are bloodstream infections

What Is The Real Solution?

While it seems like switching to an all-in-one cleaning solution may be the best choice in combating against HAI’s, it may not be the best choice. We’re not telling you not to switch, but in our experience Medical Facility Cleaning services tend to have more experience in cleaning medical facilities.

The goal for any medical facility and cleaning service is to clean, disinfect and sanitize the facility in a safe, controlled manner that has the least amount of impact on medical providers and patients.

If you’re not sure what type of cleaning solution is the best choice for your medical facility, give us a call. We would be happy to help you find the right solution to keep your worker and patients safe and healthy.