Hospital Benefits Using One-Step Wet Dusting

Company Website

Can you imagine dusting, cleaning and disinfecting hospital floors with one step instead of two?  Would you believe it can be done without hauling buckets of cleaning solution back and forth all day?  

It isn't hard for Holly Norris, the environmental services director at Reston Hospital Center in Reston, Va. to imagine.  She has been familiar with Filmop’s microfiber wet dusting floor maintenance system since her military service stationed her in Europe.  Filmop has been the number one microfiber choice in Europe for decades.

After joining the staff at Reston Hospital Center, Norris knew she wanted to bring microfiber into the facility for the many benefits she experienced in Europe … significant savings in chemical, water and labor, as well as greater cleaning efficiency and longer mop life expectancy.  

After researching all microfiber options, and after consultation with Meaghan Brown of S. Freedman & Sons, a provider of quality janitorial supplies, she was convinced the Filmop system was the best fit.

Wet Dusting Replaces Two-Step Process
The primary component of the Filmop wet dusting system is the patented Top-Down  Charging Bucket.  This compact, sealed, five-gallon container holds up to 30 flat mop-heads, and is then filled with 1.5 gallons of cleaning solution. The mop-heads soak up the cleaning solution during the “charging” time of 20 to 30 minutes, and are ready for quick attachment to mop handles for cleaning.  

The Top-Down Charging Bucket replaces heavy water buckets and traditional string mops. The system also replaces the time-consuming two-step floor maintenance procedure of dry dusting followed by damp mopping.  In just one wet dusting step, staff uses long-looped microfiber mop heads, charged with a disinfecting solution, to completely dust, clean, and disinfect floors.   

Additional health advantages are realized with wet dusting, as dust particles are captured more efficiently.  Studies show between 15,000 and 25,000 dust particles are released into a cubic yard of air during a typical dry dusting process, which is eliminated in wet dusting.  The result: healthier indoor air for better patient care.     
 
Hair-Free, Corner-Clean Floors
In hospital housekeeping, little things can add up to big things.  Take hair, paper clips, fiber fragments, or syringe caps, for instance.  

"If you spend two or four hours on cleaning and finishing a floor, a single hair can ruin it. Just one strand is so noticeable," explains Norris.  "With Filmop flat mops, there are no hairs or loose fibers left on the floor."

String mops can present a challenge with wayward fibers. Through chemical exposure and laundering, the strands wear and break down, depositing small fibers on the floor surface.  Secondly, the strands get caught on bed corners, resulting in more fiber deposits.   

Additionally, using a string mop can be like cleaning with rope on a stick, as there are gaps in the connection of the mop to the floor surface.  

Filmop’s long-looped, flat mop-heads ensure even and consistent floor contact and pull dirt from the corners and baseboards. By design, microfiber strands grab onto small items and hair, and remove them from the surface instead of just pushing them around.  

The larger debris (such as paper clips, syringe caps) is easily seen by staff using a flat mop and deposited at the room entrance for pick up and disposal.

By contrast, these items can be caught in mop strings and pushed around until deposited in a corner.  Or, they get so entangled in the strings that they remain there, even through laundering.

A Clean Mop for Every Room
Top Down Charging Buckets are easily transported on carts to the cleaning area.  The sealed containers, which are slightly larger than a bread box, take the space of perhaps five traditional string mop heads and weigh considerably less.

A single Filmop long-looped mop head, completely charged with cleaning solution, weighs an incredibly light 12 ounces, compared to a traditional string mop that weighs about 10 pounds when wet.
 
Filmop mop-heads are quickly changed on light-weight handles that grab and release the mop-head in seconds. The system makes it easy to use a clean mop-head for each room, as well as for cleaning walls and vertical surfaces.   

Additionally, the system maximizes disinfecting effectiveness with a unique procedure that re-charges the mop-head with solution with each pass of the mop.  The long-loop microfiber transfers more solution onto the floor than traditional string mopping and ensures a more thorough dwell time for proper sanitation.

Fray-Free, Fabric-Free, Foam-Free = Long Life
In her testing of microfiber options, Norris reports another microfiber mop-head, constructed with foam or fabric padding, had a 15% failure rate after one week, as the product frayed and became unusable.

The failure rate with string mops was slightly better, however Norris was still spending several thousand dollars a month for replacement. "The string mops frayed and the chemicals really ate through them.  I would get maybe ten laundry cycles out of them," she notes.

By comparison, she is replacing the Filmop mop-heads, made without filler, every six to eight months.
 
At the end of the day, the Filmop system delivers tremendous benefits for Reston Hospital Center.  Would Norris ever consider switching back?  As she notes, "It would be hard to go back to a system that would require more work, cost more, and be harder on employees."