Providing a safe and healthy environment for building occupants is a primary goal for in-house cleaning departments. This means eliminating bacteria and the threat of infection, while reducing cross-contamination, especially in areas such as restrooms that receive high traffic from building occupants.

Although products play a large role in cleaning for health, restroom cleaning techniques also must be scrutinized and streamlined. Managers can start by addressing cleaning needs and reevaluating restroom training.

Cleaning Frequency

Restrooms are one of the most visible — and therefore one of the most scrutinized — areas of the facility. These rooms also have the potential to harbor more bacteria than any other space. Not only is it imperative to clean frequently to maintain the clean look of the restroom, cleaning is necessary in the prevention of cross-contamination and infection.

“Our restrooms receive a thorough cleaning every night, but we spot clean the public restrooms every two hours throughout the day,” says Paul Steines, building service manager at Marshfield Clinic in Marshfield, Wis. “We want to provide a clean environment at all times.”

Ron Edquist, section manager, housekeeping at Abbott Laboratories in Ill., agrees that frequent cleaning and disinfecting is necessary in these high traffic and high profile areas of the facility.

“Our cleaning staff goes in to service restrooms two times during our first shift to make sure they are in acceptable order and necessary supplies are stocked,” he says. “They will also empty waste containers as needed and do minor touch-ups if necessary. Then, restrooms are thoroughly cleaned during the second shift.”

Cleaning frequencies in many facilities will depend solely on the traffic and conditions of the particular restroom. As a benchmark, managers are advised to conduct restroom cleaning throughout the day as needed and at least once every evening. Familiarizing themselves with traffic patters throughout the facility will help managers schedule maintenance accordingly.

Visual clues indicating necessary cleaning are excessive trash, shrinking paper and soap stock and the general appearance of cleanliness. An unkempt restroom is a feeding ground for bacteria and can result in vocal complains from building occupants as well.

“Cleaning frequencies at the hospital depend on the specific restroom,” says Margie Bruckner, manager of environmental services at Aurora Sheboygan Memorial Medical Center in Sheboygan, Wis. “Our lobby restroom is cleaned four times a day because of the amount of traffic it receives, but areas that aren’t used as often might receive scheduled cleaning only twice.”

Bruckner monitors the restrooms regularly throughout the facility and fluctuates cleaning times as necessary. “Restroom cleaning frequency is a top priority,” she says.

Focus On Training

Although restrooms are a hot spot in the fight against bacteria, cleaners who are stretched for time in their day have been known to cut corners when managers are out of sight. This reality can cause problems both with perception of clean and bacteria levels.

To prevent this from happening, custodial managers emphasize the importance of training and strict cleaning requirements. They then follow up with an inspection process to make sure training procedures are followed.

“We spend a good amount of time on training of products, but also the importance of cleaning processes,” says Michele Sutherland, housekeeping supervisor at Madison County Health Care System in Winterset, Iowa. “This way we make sure workers understand why they are cleaning a specific area, as well as what they are cleaning it with.”

Product training is an important first step when it comes to maintaining the restroom. Understandably, cleaners need to know which product to use on which surface, but they also need to know how to use those products properly. Using the correct product incorrectly can have the same results as not cleaning at all.

“Product training is essential to ensure that the correct product is being used for its intended function and in its correct form,” says Edquist.

Understanding a products function and purpose, as well as its proper use, will ensure cleanliness and help control bacteria in the restroom.

Take chemicals, for instance. Sprays are designed to cover a specific amount of area and should be held roughly 6 to 8 inches from the surface. Spray too close and the full surface is not being cleaned. Hold it too far away and much of the chemical might not even hit the surface.

Identifying and adhering to proper chemical dwell times is also important in the fight against bacteria. Chemicals are only effective if used as directed, which means allowing them to sit on surfaces for a predetermined set of time. But, this step is often skipped because cleaners are rushed to complete tasks quickly. To combat this problem, many training programs focus specifically on dwell times.

“The disinfectant we use has, at most, a 10-minute contact time that we follow,” says Sutherland.

This can be a long time for cleaners on the day shift who are often rushed or interrupted by building occupants looking to use the restroom. But, implementing a streamlined restroom cleaning process and conducting proper training can help offset these longer dwell time requirements.

For interim daytime cleaning, train workers to spray down horizontal surfaces and touch points with the cleaning chemical. While waiting for those dwell times, empty trash and refill paper and soap products. This should allow enough contact time for most chemicals after which cleaners can wipe down those sprayed surfaces.

Disinfecting the restroom throughout the day will help reduce bacteria and the threat for cross-contamination and according to ISSA’s Cleaning Times, this level of restroom service should only take 10 to 12 minutes.

At night, dwell times aren’t as much of an issue because restrooms receive more detailed attention from custodial crews.

“Most restroom cleaning done on second shift allows for thorough surface cleaning and more than adequate dwell times,” says Edquist.

Cleaners must still spray surfaces with a disinfectant first, but instead of only emptying trash and replenishing supplies during dwell times, workers are also tending to toilets and urinals, partition walls, floors and tile and grout. Allowing for the time it takes to complete these additional tasks guarantees dwell times are met.

Constant Training Reminders

When restroom training is first implemented, processes run smoothly and cleaning standards are met. Then, over time, workers cut a corner here and skip a step there. Soon, restroom-cleaning processes are unrecognizable and efficiencies are obsolete, exposing building occupants to harmful bacteria.

To guarantee the work is being done correctly every time, managers stress the importance of frequently scheduled and repeated training. Steines oversees a strict ongoing training program at Marshfield Clinic that has proven to be successful.

“We initially work with employees for three days to show them the products and proper procedures to cleaning restrooms,” he says, “but then we continue following up with them daily on the procedures to make sure they are performing them correctly.”

Bruckner has a similar approach at her medical center where new hires receive one-on-one training for one week. Following that introductory training, the new employee will be placed with other workers within the department for about a month before going out on their own. Even then, every employee is evaluated during weekly inspections.

“We are constantly training our employees and using weekly inspections to evaluate their work,” she says. “If we notice in those inspections that the same problems are coming up time and again, we’ll retrain the employee.”

Many managers implement inspection programs like this to make sure employees abide by cleaning policies. State health officials and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention personnel take that one step further and suggest an additional yearly, in-depth evaluation of each employee and their compliance with the cleaning programs, a recommendation Bruckner takes seriously.

“We do a yearly competency evaluation on each employee to make sure they are competent to do the job,” she says. “The trainer goes with each worker on the job to monitor performance, then signs off on each individual task that the cleaner is responsible for.”

These evaluations are updated regularly and compiled into a binder for easy reference. Not only is it a good practice, but it is also a quick reference for Joint Commission representatives requiring proof of competency and compliance with regulations such as hospital standards, rationales, elements of performance, scoring information and accreditation policies and procedures.

“The Joint Commission was just here and asked us to provide documentation on the competency of our staff,” says Bruckner. “I was able to just hand over the binder.”

Regularly scheduled evaluations of cleaning products, processes and employee performance is a great way to assess training needs within the department, identify the need for updates and maintain a healthy restroom environment.

“You have to have a combination of both product and chemical knowledge to go with the proper cleaning and training technique,” says Edquist. “This will ensure your cleaning is done properly every time.”




POSTED ON: 8/30/2010