Hospitals: Sensitive cleaning needed Challenge for service providers

Since October 2015, a Nuremberg service provider is responsible for maintenance cleaning in the Klinik Bavaria in Kreischa. The client and service provider have now become a well-established team; together, they create a hygienic and pleasant atmosphere.Dirty floors, stained beds, negligent disinfection – such flagrant hygiene breaches in hospitals repeatedly provide journalists with fodder for huge headlines and negative reports. Often, these serious allegations cannot simply be minimized in front of microphones and television cameras! Hardly any area in building cleaning is more sensitive than the healthcare sector. “Patients, those in need of care and their family members judge the level of cleaning to be just as important as the nursing care, the therapeutic measures and the food,” confirms the German Association for Hospital Hygiene. This goes much further than simply ensuring a good atmosphere. Inadequate hygiene is the main cause of infection with resistant germs in hospitals. Combating this requires increased attention, well-trained cleaning and nursing staff as well as meticulous compliance with regulations. Hygiene and cleanliness have priorityThe Klinik Bavaria in Kreischa near Dresden, one of the leading rehab centers in Germany, is a hospital where all of this works very well. Patients from all over Germany seek out this impressive facility – which is architecturally reminiscent of the Saxon Baroque – for treatment. The clinic’s spectrum of services ranges from intensive medicine and early rehabilitation, follow-up treatment as well as inpatient and outpatient therapy. A distinction is made between the rehab area and the professional and private clinic, which specializes on weaning long-term intensive care patients from ventilators or preparing them for mechanical ventilation at home. “The hygiene regulations are significantly stricter here than in the rehab area,” explains Anett Wambach, Business Manager Hygiene in Klinik Bavaria Rehabilitations KG. She is responsible for the hygiene team that, in consultation with all clinic departments, works to ensure perfect conditions. Anett Wambach and her team have been supported by the Dorfner Group since October 2015. Maintenance cleaning and waste management are covered in House 2 of the clinic by the Nuremberg service provider. In two shifts, approximately 45 employees under the supervision of object manager Silko Kleinert and two foremen are busy with many different tasks. Circa 43,500 square meters must be cleaned per month. ICU: Also a psychological challengeThe morning shift starts at 6:00 a.m. By noon, all patient rooms and the stations must be in order. Every cleaner has a specific area of responsibility. “This lets us ensure that the special needs of each station are completely internalized and taken into account at all times,” says Silko Kleinert. The intensive care unit is a particular challenge, especially because it makes up about 50 percent of the area cleaned by Dorfner. In addition to the sensitive hygiene conditions and strenuous physical work on this station, the psychological factor cannot be downplayed. “The patients here are often critically ill. You first have to be able to deal with this mentally,” says Kleinert, who always has an open ear for his employees. “We prepare the cleaners for such situations even during the job interviews.” Many rooms in the ICU may only be entered with the appropriate protective clothing. The rooms this applies to are marked, or the cleaners are notified about them by the nursing staff. The danger of transmitting dangerous germs is great. “Before entering, the cleaner thus puts on a special protective gown, new disposable gloves, and mouth protection,” according to the object manager, who has also trained to become a state-certified disinfector. “After the sensitive area has been cleaned and disinfected, the cleaner must take off the protective clothing at the entrance to the room. The disposable products are gotten rid of on the spot.” This is the only way to ensure that pathogens cannot get out and put other patients at risk. Cleaners use the “Classic Cleaning” procedure from the Dorfner-Module-System 2.0, which was developed with a special focus on application safety – in addition to efficiency and sustainability. Easy-to-understand icons on all labels explain the dosage and correct application. Easy handling guarantees safetyThe easy handling of the cleaning chemicals prevents sources of error, which leads to even greater protection of patients and visitors in the object. Over- or under-dosages are excluded by the forcible application of the concentrate, which has the EU eco-label. The cleaning textiles in the Dorfner-Module-System 2.0 are color-coated: Red towels are exclusively for the toilets; yellow for the sinks, showering areas and other bathroom surfaces; blue for the higher areas in the patient room. Regional manager Frank Blum explains why this procedure is so important for the clinic: “Almost 90 percent of the Dorfner employees here in Kreischa come from the Czech Republic. All of them have a basic knowledge of German, which is a criterion for getting the job. Our employees are also very concerned with improving their language skills. Some of them take lessons; others are constantly learning in everyday life. Despite this, we must make absolutely sure that no mistakes are made. We have had very good experiences with our module system.” Company program for washcloths and mop coversThe cleaning textiles are washed and disinfected in the basement of the clinic – after every use! Every cloth and every wide mop cover is only used for one room and then changed. In the laundry room, the containers for dirty and clean textiles are strictly separated. The corresponding washing program that runs on the four machines was developed by Elektro Engelbrecht in Hassfurt especially for the Klinik Bavaria in Kreischa and customized for our special hygiene needs. As soon as the washing machine is closed, the front and porthole – the places that come into contact with the dirty textiles – are subjected to surface disinfection. “Otherwise,” says Blum, “the disinfected materials could be re-contaminated by pathogens upon removal from the machine.” The late shift, with its two employees, begins work at 1:00 p.m. By then, the upstairs dining room is almost empty. The cleaning team comes in with the large ride-on scrubber dryer machine (Hako Scrubmaster B115 R). This vehicle was purchased specifically for the new contract in Kreischa – after intensive consultation with the department for application engineering. After all, the machine must fit in the clinic elevators and cannot be too heavy or too wide. While one of the two Dorfner employees works on the wide corridors with the heavy machine, the other one cleans the spaces under chairs, tables and in corners that the machine cannot reach. “The surfaces look significantly better since we have started using the ride-on scrubber dryer.” Emergency number: Service provider always availableAfter the dining room – which looks more like a five-star hotel restaurant than a hospital dining room – is clean, the late shift attends to special cleaning tasks. These might include, for example, preparing rooms for incoming patients or cleaning them after a patient leaves. Every station has an “Emergency Number” the caregivers can use to get support from the cleaning team if necessary. The cleaner must wear new disposable gloves for every work process. Before donning them, they must rub their hands for at least 30 seconds with a disinfectant. “We strictly monitor compliance with this rule. To ensure that employees continually remember these priorities, we repeat them regularly in staff trainings,” explains the object manager, who already completed his training with Dorfner. He works in the Klinik Bavaria Kreischa until 4:00 p.m. and functions as a contact for the customer and the staff members; he also carries out several regular inspections per day together with the foremen. “During these inspections, we carry out random checks of four to five rooms. Based on a checklist, we determine whether everything has been done or if improvement is necessary.” It is very important to point out errors in order to prevent them in the future, according to Kleinert. Short chain of command through good communicationIt is also important for the object manager to promote communication between the cleaning staff and the nursing staff. He wants to keep official channels as short as possible. “Initially we had some minor communication difficulties,” he says. “We sensitized the nursing staff on the stations, however, to speak slowly, use keywords and if necessary, to use their hands and feet!” This now works very well – just like all of the workflows between the service provider and the Klinik Bavaria; both parties agree on this. “We established our service in October 2015 at very short notice,” says regional manager Frank Blum. “Very quickly, however, we obtained the specifications for the object and created the foundation for a smooth start. The training team performed excellent work, which enabled us to provide professional cleanliness and hygiene from the first hour on.” Even before the official start, all employees and their respective supervisors, i.e. the section managers and foremen from other objects, went to the hospital to evenly split up the areas and system applications among the new colleagues. For this, of course, the cleaning carts and textiles already had to be available in the object. “Here, we were able to count on our long-time partner Pfennig Reinigungstechnik, who delivered everything punctually despite the little available time,” said Blum. The training team was in action for only two weeks; after this, every new staff member knew what to do. Peter Engelbrecht, overall Managing Director of the Dorfner Group, praises the commitment of the staff: “We are very proud of their performance and the good development we see in Kreischa. Once again, we have demonstrated that our guiding principle, ‘Quality for People and Buildings’ is not just empty words. I would especially like to thank my colleagues on location, who have acquainted themselves professionally and ambitiously to learn about the special features of the Klinik Bavaria. Anett Wambach is also satisfied with the start of the company’s work in the object: “I only have positive things to report about our cooperation. Of course, as everywhere, there are small stumbling blocks every so often. But Dorfner really has very short response times. We discuss issues promptly. This nips them in the bud so that they don’t turn into real problems!” Ina Jacob | peter.hartmann@holzmann-medien.de

Hospitals: Sensitive cleaning needed Challenge for service providers

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