Maintaining Hard Surface Floors in Health Care Facilities

While some health care facilities have carpeting in lobbies and other common areas, the flooring installed in these types of locations usually is a hard surface, such as vinyl composition tile or terrazzo. Hard surface flooring is selected for a very practical reason: spills of all kinds can be cleaned up fairly easily and quickly with little or no damage to the floor.

However, this should not lead health care administrators or the cleaning professionals they work with to believe that hard surface flooring is essentially impenetrable and easy to maintain. Especially if a facility strives to maintain a high-gloss shine, floors must be properly cleaned and maintained. While a number of problems can arise, particularly when refinishing floors, most issues can be avoided or easily corrected if proper measures are taken.

Below are some of the more common floor care problems that arise in health care environments along with ways to address them.

• The floor appears soiled or lacks shine after mopping or refinishing. A number of issues can cause this scenario, but at the top of the list is the cleanliness of the mops used to maintain the floors and apply finish. Are the mops clean? Before performing many floor care tasks, such as refinishing a floor, it is best to select new, unused mops for the job. Also, the mops used to clean and rinse the floor should not be used to apply finish; keep finishing mops separate from cleaning mops.
• The floor shows no gloss or shine. When clean mops, buckets, and solution are used for refinishing work but the floor still does not shine, it may simply be that not enough finish was applied. In most cases, the gloss shine does not necessarily develop until the third coat of finish is applied. In a health care facility, applying four to even six coats of finish is advisable.
• The finish does not adhere properly to the floor. Environmental conditions can impact how well finish adheres to the floor. In most cases, it is best to finish floors when it is not too cold, hot, or humid. Heat, cold, and humidity can impact how well finish adheres to the floor. This also applies to the storage of floor care chemicals and finishes. They should be stored in areas that have moderate temperatures throughout the year.
• Powder forms over the floor. Sometimes the floor’s finish actually starts to disintegrate shortly after it is applied. A fine, light-colored powder forms over the floor, referred to as powdering. There can be a variety of reasons this happens. Is the floor brand new? Some new floors have a protective coating to shield the surface during transportation and delivery. This coating should be removed first before finish is applied. In some cases, the wrong finish is applied. There are essentially two types of floor machines: low speed and high speed, also known as burnishers. If a low speed finish has been applied to the floor, yet a high speed machine is used to burnish the floor, it can cause the finish to disintegrate, causing powdering.
• Excessive scuffing appears on the floor. If you witness more scuff marks than usual shortly after a floor has been refinished, it can indicate that the coats of finish applied are too thick. Each coat should be thin with the goal of applying several thin coats of finish. As referenced earlier, four to six coats of finish should provide adequate floor protection and prevent excessive scuffing in a health care facility.

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Busted! Which green seals should be hung out to dry (or praised)?

View the latest in Green Seal Certifications:

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http://www.ecoholic.ca/greenwash/

How To Clean and Disinfect Schools To Help Slow the Spread of Flu

Cleaning and disinfecting are part of a broad approach to preventing infectious diseases in schools. To help slow the spread of influenza (flu), the first line of defense is getting vaccinated. Other measures include covering coughs and sneezes, washing hands, and keeping sick people away from others. Below are tips on how to slow the spread of flu specifically through cleaning and disinfecting.

1. Know the difference between cleaning, disinfecting, and sanitizing

Cleaning removes germs, dirt, and impurities from surfaces or objects. Cleaning works by using soap (or detergent) and water to physically remove germs from surfaces. This process does not necessarily kill germs, but by removing them, it lowers their numbers and the risk of spreading infection.

Disinfecting kills germs on surfaces or objects. Disinfecting works by using chemicals to kill germs on surfaces or objects. This process does not necessarily clean dirty surfaces or remove germs, but by killing germs on a surface after cleaning, it can further lower the risk of spreading infection.

Sanitizing lowers the number of germs on surfaces or objects to a safe level, as judged by public health standards or requirements. This process works by either cleaning or disinfecting surfaces or objects to lower the risk of spreading infection.

2. Clean and disinfect surfaces and objects that are touched often

Follow your school’s standard procedures for routine cleaning and disinfecting. Typically, this means daily sanitizing surfaces and objects that are touched often, such as desks, countertops, doorknobs, computer keyboards, hands-on learning items, faucet handles, phones, and toys. Some schools may also require daily disinfecting these items. Standard procedures often call for disinfecting specific areas of the school, like bathrooms. Immediately clean surfaces and objects that are visibly soiled. If surfaces or objects are soiled with body fluids or blood, use gloves and other standard precautions to avoid coming into contact with the fluid. Remove the spill, and then clean and disinfect the surface.

Read more:

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/school/cleaning.htm

Back-to-School Floor Care

Jansan professionals have been hearing about diminishing school maintenance budgets for many years. However, due to the recession, many school cleaning budgets have been reduced even further, with numerous districts hiring fewer cleaning workers and reducing cleaning frequencies.

Yet schools must still be cleaned, and this includes the floors. Because many schools sit empty during the summer months, this is the perfect time to strip and refinish floors and—even more important—to develop a floor care strategy for the upcoming year. While many schools neglect to take this step, it is just as important to proper maintenance as cleaning or refinishing.


A floor care strategy should focus on three key areas:
• Selecting high-quality floor care chemicals, especially finishes
• Developing an efficient, cost-effective daily floor cleaning program
• Scheduling interim maintenance throughout the school year.
 




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http://www.issa.com/?m=articles&event=view&id=4028&page=1&lg=&category=116

Preventing Infections in Health Care Facilities

Health care-associated infections (HAIs) continue to plague facilities in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate that one out of every 20 patients will become infected with an HAI.¹

Two of the most troublesome HAIs that health care facilities face include norovirus, a pathogen that causes gastroenteritis and food poisoning, and Clostridium difficile (C. difficile), a spore-forming bacterium that causes symptoms ranging from diarrhea to life-threatening inflammation of the colon. These infections spread rapidly through populations and can cost facilities thousands of additional dollars to contain. However, there are prevention mechanisms and protocols available to help minimize outbreaks.

HAI prevention should be a priority for health care staff working in all types of facilities including hospitals, outpatient, and long-term care facilities. Prevention is not only in the best interest of the patients, but health care staff as well. It is everyone’s responsibility to maintain a safe patient environment. Cleaning staff need to be knowledgeable about proper hand hygiene protocols, personal protective equipment use, disease transmission, and cleaning and disinfection procedures for HAIs. Therefore, training and educating staff on these issues should be a main priority for both the infection prevention and environmental services teams. While protocols can differ between facilities, all personnel should have their roles and responsibilities clearly defined so that their progress can be monitored.

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