Basic floor cleaning methods like brooms and mops will only get you so far in maintaining your facility’s cleanliness.
Even with brand-new tiles and regular surface clean-ups, bacteria, and dirt eventually get into depressions, dents, cracks, and corners, growing up as time passes and becoming difficult to get rid of. Continue reading to learn more!
Special Considerations regarding Grout in a Health Care Setting
This can be particularly true for grout lines. It is porous even if sealed. This is why grout lines often look dirty and darken even when the surface is well-maintained.
In any environment can deter employees and customers. However, in the hospital environment, the situation can become hazardous.
Sealing Grout to Combat Dangerous Infections
Recent studies have found some floors in patient rooms host several potentially dangerous bacteria, such as MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) and VRE (Vancomycin-resistant enterococci). They are both resistant to the majority of kinds of antibiotics.
To prevent the spread of these dangerous bacteria, grout and tile surfaces (and other flooring types) must be sealed following installation and after thorough cleaning. Modern floor coverings or sealants keep dirt and other contaminants from getting into flooring materials, where bacteria can hide and multiply.
Seal Maintenance to Protect Floor Surfaces
Sealing your tile and other hard surfaces can also simplify maintenance since chemical agitation and harsh chemicals are not required to get rid of the grime.
The frequent use of harsh disinfectants and cleaners can harm floors and create new areas for bacteria to thrive, making a continuous cycle of cleaning and contaminating.
If you have sealed floors, thorough maintenance for floors can be planned depending on the need with the use of tools, chemicals, and methods appropriate for the location and amount of traffic. Many companies that offer high-end floor shields as well as cleaning and restoration offer maintenance services. In certain cases, maintenance services can be considered the floor’s guarantee.
Maintaining hospital floor surfaces
When a visitor or patient arrives at a health facility, the perception of their cleanliness usually is how the floors look. However, implementing an effective floor maintenance program to give visitors and patients the best impression could pose specific problems.
A well-integrated program with the appropriate equipment and processes for training and measurement is essential. When the correct elements are in place, the solutions will result in higher satisfaction and results and improve your image for guests, patients, and staff.
Factors to be considered
There are many things to think about when creating an appropriate program. The floor care process in hospitals involves important steps that aid in delivering an efficient maintenance program, minimize wear, and prolong the life of the flooring. Follow these steps to avoid an increase in the cost of labor and costs for the hospital. The steps are as follows:
Step 1.
Examine the requirements and goals for the establishment. There are many people involved, and they might have different requirements. A key part of the process is a review of the facility, including the condition and evaluation of flooring and subfloors, current procedures, and identifying best practices and areas that need to be addressed.
The Environmental Services (EVS) professionals should also take the time to review the workflows and best times to tackle specific aspects within the building. Multiple traffic patterns and substrates could create a complex need for floor maintenance in totality, and a comprehensive overview of the current practices could assist in establishing a process to improve and standardize using the best practices approach. This can also be incorporated into the design process of what to do with floors in the future.
During the evaluation, It is essential to know what obstacles may be encountered and to resolve these issues to implement the protocol correctly.
Problems could be as simple as having qualified staff members to accomplish the job and having access to the floors in the patient care areas to permit maintenance daily and more remedial processes to meet appearance demands and prevent wear and tear and putting together a simple and easy program to deal with the many flooring surfaces and traffic levels that are found all over the facility. Click here for more details.
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Step 2. Select a solid floor maintenance plan. A floor maintenance plan should include periodic, regular intervals, and restorative maintenance. This means using the correct materials, procedures, and frequency since a faulty product can end the manufacturer’s warranty and result in significant costs for replacing damaged flooring. Additionally, using the best practices in the industry using an optimized standardized approach can lead to the best performance.
With the many flooring options in a building, It can take time to determine which one to choose when establishing a maintenance plan.
It is the first thing to check the recommendations of the manufacturer. This can not only ensure the warranty of the flooring but also save you time and money by avoiding maintenance.
A consistent maintenance and cleaning schedule is created to keep floors tidy and slick while also helping to ensure an even appearance. These steps can vary depending on patterns and traffic levels. Furthermore, flooring coatings and finishes can safeguard the flooring surface from wear and soil. Finding out the frequency of use is important in successful flooring maintenance.
In-between and restorative maintenance processes, including scrubbing, stripping, or recoating, can bring floors back to a satisfactory state when they don’t appear as desirable. If regular cleaning and maintenance routines are in place, it will reduce the need and frequency for these labor-intensive tasks.
Making floor care maintenance easier through the consolidation of items and using the right equipment and tools can be helpful in the effort to accomplish more in less. A manufacturer of equipment and chemicals can offer guidance on creating the ideal solution.
Step 3. Develop a training plan and provide the materials. EVS experts should collaborate with suppliers to outline the steps, using tools to aid education and best practice implementation. They must ensure that their employees are properly trained in the procedures and products to complete the task. Some manufacturers offer great training tools and applications to ensure uniformity and complete processes.
Step 4. Round and examine. EVS professionals must develop a rounding routine to evaluate the facility’s different areas to determine the impressions they leave. They should pinpoint areas for intervention and offer feedback and tools for staff members to aid in driving constant improvement.
First impression
The first impression is crucial. A lasting impression can increase satisfaction and a healthcare facility’s safety. An integrated floor maintenance plan that includes the best equipment, products, and procedures can create a more secure and satisfying atmosphere for care.
