Cleaning a Hospice Facility

By: Hayden Bodiford
October 15, 2022

Cleaning a hospice facility involves much more than just ensuring “sparkling surfaces,” and it must be done properly to maintain the end-of-life comfort that residents in these facilities deserve. To help ensure that your facility is following best practices, read on to learn how to clean a hospice facility.

Or, check one more thing off your to-do list today and leave the cleaning to our team at 360clean. To learn more about our hospice cleaning services, contact us today for a free quote.

Environmental Cleaning for Hospice Facilities

It can be challenging to clean the rooms of patients in a hospice facility, as they are almost always in their rooms. But by following a few guidelines, any cleaning professional can help reduce the spread of healthcare-associated infections while keeping patients as comfortable as possible.

At all times, regardless of what is being cleaned, staff must remember the entire concept of hospice is to keep patients as comfortable as possible in their final moments. Therefore, it’s not a good idea to use cleaning products and solutions that contain harsh chemicals. Instead, many facilities these days are switching to greener, safer products.

Cleaning should also be accomplished in a pattern or systematic method each time to limit the chance of missing anything. In addition, cleaning should be done in a back-to-forward manner, from the furthest wall at the rear of the room to the entrance of the room.

8 Steps for Cleaning Hospice Rooms

Eight specific steps should be followed to ensure proper cleaning takes place. Before you begin, gather everything you will need, from PPE to cleaning solutions to trash bags and replacement facial tissues and towels.

1. Conduct a Preliminary Assessment

The hospice patient’s room should be visually inspected before cleaning begins. In addition, the current condition of the patient should be checked. This is done to ensure that staff can safely carry out routine cleaning. Check to see if airborne precautions should be taken or if other special PPE requirements must be met. Sometimes, a full cleaning may not be possible or plausible.

2. Dispose of Sharps and Remove Trash

Once the hospice room has been visually inspected, check for large debris on the floor that can be moved to the trash, then empty all trash cans. If there is a sharps container on the wall, that disposable receptacle should be replaced with a new, empty one.

3. Use a Disinfectant on Trash Cans

Once all garbage has been removed, use disinfectant on the trash receptacles. (Note: Every disinfectant product has a specific amount of time that it must remain on a surface to kill germs. This time is listed on product labels.)

4. Clean All High-Touch Surfaces

In occupied hospice rooms, high-touch surfaces can include any of the following:

  • Meal trays and carts
  • Remote controls
  • Monitors
  • Chairs
  • Phones
  • Railings
  • Doorknobs
  • Grab handles
  • Sink faucets
  • Toilet areas
  • Reusable equipment and machines

Make sure these surfaces are the first to be cleaned and disinfected. All visible dirt should be removed before a disinfectant is applied.

5. Spot Clean

At this point, surfaces with visible blemishes can now be spot-cleaned. This process can include actions such as cleaning glass with glass cleaner or walls with a microfiber cloth, as needed.

6. Vacuum or Dust Mop Floors

Brooms are usually not used for patient rooms in hospice facilities, as they easily redistribute germs and dirt particles. Instead, hospices elect to use vacuums or a dry mop. If you dry mop, though, be careful not to lift it from the floor and limit shaking.

7. Damp Mop Floors

Once loose debris has been removed with a dry mop or vacuum, floors can be cleaned with a wet mop. Accomplish this by using a flat microfiber mop along with a neutral floor cleaner, and don’t forget to put down a wet floor sign, too!

8. Visually Inspect the Area

Before leaving the room, look over the area one final time to ensure nothing was missed during cleaning. Do not remove any wet floor signs before the floors are completely dry.

Let 360clean Take Care of Your Cleaning Needs

Creating and maintaining a safe, healthy, comfortable environment for the residents of a hospice facility is of the utmost importance. When you need best-in-class cleaning for your hospice facility, call on 360clean to get the job done right! Contact our team today for a free, no-obligation quote on our services.

Hayden Bodiford

Social Media and PR Manager for 360clean. Based in Charleston, SC

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