Our medical system is a truly incredible and inspiring feat of modern medicine, with lifesaving care being administered daily. With so much happening in these types of environments, it is absolutely crucial to remain aware of the threat of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs).
HAIs are a very real, very serious threat to people visiting, working and staying in hospitals, despite the hospital system’s best intentions. The threat of HAIs spreading increases drastically when hospitals aren’t cleaned properly, which is why it is so necessary to choose a cleaning partner that understands thorough disinfection and sanitation processes in medical settings.
To reduce the chances of your patients, employees, and visitors getting sick and potentially spreading disease, you can’t afford to skip high quality professional medical grade cleaning. In case you’re still unsure of whether or not the cost is worth it, here are a few of the dangers of skimping out on your hospital cleaning.
Increase Risk of Hospital Acquired Infections
Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) are especially dangerous to people who are already immunocompromised and who shouldn’t be exposed to new, dangerous pathogens. Some of the most common types of HAIs include surgical site infections, MRSA, C. Difficile, VRE, and more.
The reason these are so dangerous is they’re difficult to treat and have become resistant to many types of antibiotics. When an immunocompromised person contracts one of these diseases, fighting them off is even more difficult.
When you opt for a low quality cleaning service or even none at all, and not following proper hospital cleaning standards, you’re putting your patients at risk for serious complications. HAIs account for over 1.7 million infections every year and close to 99,000 deaths.1 These can easily be prevented when you consistently focus on high quality professional hospital cleaning and take steps to reduce the spread of disease during everyday practice.
Keeping a hospital in the highest standards of cleanliness requires a lot of attention to detail, medical grade disinfectant, and a commitment to eliminating pathogens, bacteria, and virus’ on high-touch areas. All of which come with a high quality professional cleaning company.
Unchecked Spread of Disease
In addition to an increase in HAIs, you’ll experience an unchecked spread of disease with low quality hospital cleaning companies. Diseases will spread more easily from one patient to another, which can quickly create a small epidemic in your hospital. When diseases start spreading like this, you’ll likely become liable and face numerous lawsuits in addition to complaints, less business, and a general negative connotation associated with your hospital. These instances are hard to overcome and can lead to thousands of preventable deaths.
Reliance on Unavailable Technology
Another, quite unique, aspect of low quality hospital cleaning companies is their reliance on inefficient or unavailable technology. In recent years, there have been a number of technological advancements geared around hospital cleaning and medical grade supplies. However, these technologies aren’t sufficient enough to reduce the amount of HAIs and decrease the spread of disease in all hospital settings. For instance, it’s hard for technology to be double-checked without human interaction and it can be dangerous to rely on automotive methods. They’re great in theory, as they work by emitting a UV light that kills any germs leftover after the room has been cleaned and disinfected, but they’re not available on a worldwide basis and it’s unrealistic to wait on the availability of such technology. The fear is that people will begin to make their own, germ-killing robots that aren’t effective and will then fail to do the job they’re designed for.
Diminished Safety
Another danger of low quality hospital cleaning is a diminishing level of safety. Think about all of the bio-hazardous materials that need to be discarded and thrown out every single day. If you’re not doing this according to a certain protocol, it can create unsafe working conditions for the entire staff at the hospital. The same can be said about internal protocol—especially when it comes to washing hands and changing gloves. You need to have high quality standards to make sure that everyone works in a safe environment.
Risk of Employee Infection
Finally, with low quality hospital cleaning, you’re putting your employees at a higher risk for infection. They’ll be more susceptible to catching HAIs themselves and have a greater chance of needing to take off of work. Some employees refuse to take time off, even when they’re sick, which would then cause the problem to come full circle. When employees are sick, productivity drops and more people are put at risk, cross-contamination increases, and you’ll lose thousands of dollars. If you’re worried about spending a few extra dollars a month on a high quality hospital cleaning company, consider how much money you’ll lose with decreased productivity and an increase in employee sick days.
When choosing a high quality professional hospital cleaning company, partnering with one with supplier diversity is a great option. In times of gender, ethnicity, and disability equality supplier diversity benefits all business’ bottom lines. Bee Line Support is a woman-owned company certified as a Woman Business Enterprise (WBE) by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council and was founded in 1997. We’re dedicated to hiring local job seekers out of the Chicago empowerment zip codes—neighborhoods with the highest unemployment rates—to ensure that everyone has access to the employment they deserve. We care about hiring quality employees and never subcontract. We require extensive background checks and reference checks, believe in organic growth from within the company, and always train our employees extensively. Because of our dedication to employee opportunity and advancement, we’ve grown from 200 employees to over 500 employees in recent years.
To prepare all of our employees for excellence, we’ve recently built a medical exam training suite and bathroom to conduct mock cleaning simulations, educate staff on high touch points, test all management, demonstrate proper personal protective equipment use, and train staff on full terminal cleaning protocol. Bee Line Support services over 200 medical sites every night within 100-mile radius of our headquarters in East Pilsen.
Additionally, we require CMIP (Certificate of Mastery in Infection Prevention) Certified Management for all surgery sites. These managers carry vast knowledge in microbiology, precautionary safety measures, and infection prevention throughout all stages of disinfection and train all cleaning staff on all infection prevention protocol.
When you’re looking for a professional industrial cleaning company that you can trust Bee Line Support is here to help. We’re one of the only cleaning companies to use Black Light auditing to fully ensure total disinfection of all surgery terminals and are a proud partner with ImageFIRST. This partnership means we have a fully managed cleaning and supplies process, guaranteeing all supplies are 99.99% clean of common pathogens, exceed OSHA and CDC standards, and comply with Joint Commission Requirements.
At Bee Line Support, we use state of the art HEPA filter vacuums, Green Seal-certified disinfectants, and microfiber towels to eliminate bacteria completely. Bee Line Support also offers upholstery-cleaning services, carpet cleaning services, vacuuming, garbage removal, and comprehensive janitorial services. To make sure that no spot goes un-cleaned, Bee Line Support uses quality control cleaning, routine management inspections, and continual onsite training for our employees. Learn more about Bee Line’s corporate cleaning procedures download our brochure today.
Call Bee Line Support at 312-BEE-LINE or message us today to get started on the path to cleanliness!
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