Environmental cleanliness has never been more important. Due to the current worldwide pandemic, you’re probably aware of how vital it is to ensure touchpoints are carefully cleaned and disinfected within your workplace or school. Touchpoints are the areas which are impacted by frequent contact from various staff, clients, students or visitors throughout the day, meaning germs and viruses are often found to be present when tested.
Did you know? Bacteria are around 600 times smaller than a grain of sand.
Once cleaning and disinfecting has been completed, your surfaces may look visually clean, but how do you know those touchpoints are REALLY clean and free of all germs? The answer is: Auditing.
How Audits Ensure Cleaning Compliance for Touchpoints
At iClean, our cleaners receive comprehensive training in the correct techniques for cleaning and disinfecting all items and surfaces, including touchpoints.
Following this process, our site supervisors conduct regular audits on areas which have been cleaned to ensure they are free of germs, bacteria and viruses. To evaluate environmental cleanliness and ensure compliance on all our cleaning sites, iClean managers and supervisors use an innovative tool which consists of fluorescent markers, fluorescent powder, and a UV torch plus a tablet with audit software.
Firstly, a baseline assessment of the environment is conducted. Using the fluorescent markers or powder, we then mark touchpoints and specific areas with invisible gel in advance and record the location of these marks. When the cleaning is completed, supervisors use the UV torch to ensure the invisible mark has been removed during cleaning, confirming all these areas are properly cleaned, disinfected and are germ-free.
The cleaner’s ID, location readings and audit results are uploaded to the tablet for our records and this provides information to report back to our clients on request. We can also document the specific type of cleaning or chemicals used to clean a certain area. Clients can specify particular non-porous, high touch surfaces to be checked and the list of these items or surfaces can be changed at any time. We can even monitor trends across a site, compare performance against set benchmarks and generate tailored, easy to understand reports for clients.
Which Touchpoints Can Be Selected?
High touch surfaces and items to be audited may include: Light switches, door knobs and door jambs, bathroom taps, sinks and toilet flush buttons, arms on chairs, desk surfaces, remote controls, keyboards, phones and any other specific surface nominated by clients.
How We Use Audit Information
In addition to providing important data about the cleanliness of surfaces, this system provides the iClean team with valuable information for ongoing training.
Where we identify any patterns of non-compliance, we immediately remedy this with additional cleaning and disinfecting.
We then address these issues with team members through feedback, continued training and education, and ongoing auditing following each cycle of evaluation, to ensure cleaning compliance.
Research shows: In 82% of sites considered visually clean, only 30% were actually bacteriologically clean
Cleaning Audits in Medical Facilities Demonstrate Effectiveness
Studies conducted by Carling, the pioneer of UV-based auditing in environmental hygiene, showed 50% of surfaces in high-risk medical areas were found not to have been cleaned and disinfected effectively. However, with the introduction of the fluorescent marker system in ICUs across multiple hospital sites, a 40% increase in surfaces being effectively cleaned was reported.
The marker/UV torch system is used in hospitals and medical facilities to ensure compliance with the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Healthcare, NSQHS standard 3.11 – Clean Environment. It has been proven to increase the quality of cleaning.
iClean Takes Cleaning Compliance Seriously
At iClean Facility Services, close enough is never good enough for our dedicated team of cleaning experts. We are meticulous in our methods, consistent in our standards and pay attention to the small details.
We set the bar high and strive to never fall short of our client’s expectations. That’s why we’ve embraced this innovative system of cleaning compliance. We want to be absolutely sure your touchpoints are being properly cleaned every time.
Need more information?
Let’s chat about your touchpoint cleaning requirements. Simply call us on 1300 763 356 or email us at: sales@icleanfs.com.au. We’re always happy to chat about cleaning and disinfecting the touchpoints in your business or school.
Recent Comments