Cleaning and Disinfecting Nursing Homes During a Pandemic

Nursing homes and other long-term care facilities have been severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which is why it’s extremely important to properly clean and disinfect these communal spaces to prevent further community spread of the virus. One of the most effective ways to disrupt spread of the virus within long-term care communities is to train staff to properly clean and disinfect and to maintain a consistent schedule of such practices. Following is a set of recommendations for approaching such a task. These guidelines apply to all types of nursing homes and other kinds of healthcare facilities, and they will further benefit your staff by protecting them and keeping everyone safe and healthy.

Frequency of Cleaning and Disinfection

Nursing and retirement homes should perform frequent cleaning and disinfection of high-touch surfaces in the common areas – at least twice a day. Cleaning staff at these types of long-term care communities should pay particular attention to all surfaces, even the ones that don’t directly come in contact with the residents, such as medicine carts, desks, computer screens, and phones. They should also disinfect (not just clean) items like dishes, cutlery, and linens, considering these are used multiple times a day by the residents and can be a vehicle of transmission.

Disinfecting High-Touch Surfaces

Pay special attention to surfaces in resident rooms, even if only one resident is using the space. With this virus, you can never be too careful! High-touch surfaces include bedside tables, call bell cords or buttons, door handles, light switches, railings, and chairs. It’s important to keep the space that one resident inhabits as disinfected as possible to prevent transmission of anything they came into contact within the communal spaces to their private rooms.

Another group of high-touch surfaces that are equally important to sanitize is shared resident healthcare equipment like thermometers, stethoscopes, and blood-pressure cuffs. They should be disinfected after each use, and be sure to discard single-use covers for things like thermometers.

Hospital-Grade Disinfectants

Another good strategy in combating COVID in nursing homes is to use registered healthcare-grade disinfectants and make sure the contact times for various surfaces are adhering to the product label instructions. A product like Enviro Safe’s H2Orange2 Concentrate created by Envirox is EPA registered to kill the primary viruses that are problematic to humans, such as Herpes Simplex Virus Type 2, influenza, Hepatitis B, and HIV. It also kills 99.99% of bacteria common to healthcare facilities, like Staphylococcus and Streptococcus. The patented hydrogen peroxide technology combined with cold-pressed orange oil works to effectively break down dirt and germs while safely delivering great results on a variety of surfaces like glass, tile floors, restroom fixtures, and even carpets. The formula is also easy to use, leaving no sticky residue so you don’t even have to rinse after using it.

PPE

Personal protective equipment should be worn by cleaning staff as well as the nursing home staff. Face masks or shields, gloves, and gowns are important to wear even if the disinfectant you are using doesn’t require such safety measures. Microorganisms present on the surfaces you are cleaning can be transferred to patients if you don’t have some kind of shield against them. Discard the PPE after disinfecting each resident’s room or personal area.

Disinfecting Tools

It helps to utilize cleaning tools and equipment to make the overwhelming task of disinfecting any entire facility, sometimes multiple times a day, more manageable. There are several tools and products that increase effectiveness while reducing the time spent in each resident’s room and communal spaces. Technologies such as electrostatic spraying and dry foggers are a viable whole-room disinfection solutions for hospitals and long-term care facilities. Enviro Safe’s dry fogging service uses Halosil’s proprietary HaloMist formula to destroy a broad spectrum of microorganisms, such as the very resistant C. diff spores that easily spread in healthcare settings.

For surface disinfection, an electrostatic sprayer such as Enviro Safe’s air-assisted compact sprayer helps large facilities accomplish the task more effectively and in less time. It uses electrostatic technology to give superior coverage of all parts of the surface, including undersides and crevasses. Whereas covering an entire piece of furniture or other objects with a disinfectant by hand would be time-consuming and labor-intensive, the sprayer targets all angles of a surface with tiny droplets that attract the dirt or germ to themselves. This happens with an electrical charge similar to the attraction between items in a tumbling clothes dryer, even going against the force of gravity when passing a target surface. You can see how this technology would be time and cost-effective for a healthcare facility.

Disinfecting Nursing Homes

Cleaning and disinfecting nursing and retirement homes are essential in the era of a pandemic. With their populations of at-risk or higher-risk patients or residents, long-term care facilities need to take extra care when it comes to stopping the spread of the virus.

Having an effective cleaning strategy and a properly trained cleaning staff will go a long way in creating a safe and healthy environment for both your residents and employees. As discussed here, there are diverse resources at your disposal to attain these health-centered goals. Create a culture of health and safety for your patients, staff, and visitors with the right products and practices.