Aged care cleaning is not as easy as ordinary cleaning tasks. If you are managing an aged care facility, you know the challenges you have to go through every single day. This is not a responsibility that you can simply avoid. In case if you do it, you will end up compromising elderly hygiene. That’s why you need to adhere to sanitisation protocols at all times.
While creating a healthy environment for seniors, you must focus on cleaning some key areas of your facility. Let’s deep dive and take a look at what those areas are. Then you can go ahead and ensure proper senior care cleanliness at all times.
Table of Contents
Cleaning the Floors
One of the most important things you should keep clean at your senior care facility is the floor. It directly contributes towards the overall nursing home sanitation. A dirty floor can create an ideal environment for harmful microbes. In other words, it would encourage microbial contamination at your facility. That’s because seniors living at your facility would often keep their personal belongings on the floor.
You need to follow both dry cleaning and wet cleaning methods to keep the flooring clean. To begin with, you can take a dry mop. It is better to take a mop that comes along with a microfiber head. Then you can get rid of all the dirty particles from the floor. After that, you can use a wet mop. Since you have used a dry mop before, there is no need to worry about the spreading of grime. Hence, you can end up with an effective cleaning job.
While moping, make sure not to use any harsh chemicals that have a negative environmental impact. One of the best tips you can follow in here is to use a Speciality cleaning mop. Then you can complete the job without spending much effort and end up with better results.
Cleaning the Non-Porous and Shiny Surfaces
While managing a senior care facility, you should be aware of the importance of cleaning shiny surfaces as well. Perfect examples of such surfaces include stainless steel and tile surfaces. By cleaning them according to the geriatric cleaning standards, you can prevent the spread of infections. This is where hospital-grade disinfectant cleaners can help you. By using the best cleaners, you will be able to remove bacteria and viruses living on these surfaces. You must do this according to a proper cleaning schedule.
During assisted living disinfection, you should allow the surfaces to air dry as well. Then you can provide enough time for the disinfectant solution to kill bacteria and viruses. Make sure that you use one of the non-smear solutions when cleaning shiny surfaces to get better results.
Cleaning the Hard and Porous Surfaces
In your cleaning checklist, you must include the task of cleaning all hard surfaces as well. Then you can get helpful assistance with controlling the diseases caused by dust and dirt. Some perfect examples of hard and porous surfaces in your facility include vinyl and timber surfaces. Due to the nature of these surfaces, you should be using an appropriate cleaning solution.
One of the challenges you will face when cleaning hard surfaces would be to get the cleaning solution to penetrate the surface. That’s where unique infection-control cleaning products come into play. By using them, you can kill the germs that are settled deeply onto the surfaces. For example, you can get rid of microbes living in small cracks on hard surfaces.
One healthier piece of advice you need to follow when cleaning is to wipe in a circular motion. Then you can disturb your hard surface so that you can move leftover dirt from their pores.
Cleaning the Kitchen Surfaces
You make food for your entire retirement community in the kitchen. That’s why it is essential to keep all the kitchen surfaces clean. It will provide residents with the opportunity to enjoy a delicious meal, without having to worry about health issues.
Assisted living disinfection in a kitchen can be quite challenging. That’s mainly because of all the appliances you can find. But you can make your life easy by wiping down all surfaces. Then you can proceed with disinfecting the area. Make sure that you cleanse all touchpoints in your kitchen. This needs to be done promptly. If you don’t have enough time, you can get the help of a facility maintenance service. Then you can ensure proper infection control within the kitchen.
Cleaning the ceilings and walls
Ceilings and walls also contribute towards your senior living cleanliness. That’s because they get exposed to all types of dust and dirt. Some examples of pollutants that accumulate on your ceilings and walls of the kitchen include smoke, grease, and cooking oils. It is pretty much the same in the ceilings and walls of other areas in your facility as well.
You can use a microfiber mop to proceed with cleaning the ceilings and walls. Make sure that it is long enough to reach the high ceilings. You can make your life easy if the head of the mop is manoeuvrable. Then you will not have to face any problems when trying to access difficult areas.
Keeping the air clean
When trying to ensure elderly facility hygiene, you should never underestimate the importance of air. All the seniors living in your facility expect to breathe in clean air and keep themselves healthy. But if the air is not clean, seniors will have to deal with symptoms of allergies and asthma. Fatigue and headaches are a few such examples. That’s why air cleaning should come under your residential care sanitation plan.
To keep the air clean within the residential facility, you need to provide proper ventilation. This will help you with minimizing airborne transmission of viruses. Along with that, you can get appropriate air purification systems installed. When combined, they can offer much-needed assistance with your healthcare cleaning needs. The air filter should come with HEPA filtration standards to deliver the best results.
Cleaning the Touchpoints
Without cleaning the high-traffic touchpoints, you will not be able to ensure proper senior living cleanliness. You can find these touchpoints in communal areas, rooms of residents, and even in corridors. No matter what the surface is, you should be using appropriate cleaning solutions to clean them. Microfiber clothes can be useful when you are cleaning such surfaces. The disinfectant you use for a nursing facility should be capable of killing germs and bacteria effectively.
Cleaning the Electronic Devices and Other Similar Surfaces
Electronic devices have sensitive surfaces. Hence, you should be extra careful when cleaning them. Before using any disinfectant solution, you need to double-check and make sure that it won’t cause any damage to the electronic devices and their touchscreens. That’s where you can think about using specialized alcohol-based disinfectants designed for the purpose.
When it comes to cleaning the other sensitive areas of your facility, you should be using a non-reactive or non-corrosive cleaning product. This is applicable when cleaning pH-sensitive surfaces, paint surfaces, or even copper surfaces.
Final Words
We shared you with the list of areas that you need to consider when trying to ensure proper senior wellness. As you can see, there are quite a few cleaning tasks to do. While attending to these tasks, you should also be mindful of environmental safety. This is not something that you may be able to do on your own. That’s where expert cleaners can help.
Holy Cross Cleaning is willing to offer its expert aged care cleaning services to facilities in Brisbane. They are experts in offering medical-grade cleaning solutions. Hence, you don’t need to think twice before letting them take care of all cleaning tasks in your facility.