By Tom Bergin / Special to Healthcare Facilities Today

Hygiene is a crucial issue for the public as awareness and demand for environments that promote health, wellbeing and sustainability has grown. While maintaining high levels of hygiene is a concern for  all businesses and organizations, hygiene-critical environments such as hospitals and long term care facilities face even more pressure to ensure that hygiene is a priority for keeping patients, residents, visitors and staff healthy and free from the risk of germs or infections.

In hospitals, clinics and assisted living centers, setting stronger hygiene standards is especially important in the fight to curb healthcare associated infections that can easily spread. In fact, on any given day, about one in 25 hospital patients has at least one healthcare-associated infection. Although hospitals implement cleaning systems and hand hygiene compliance programs, some hospital fixtures can be susceptible to contamination and healthcare cleaning staff need to be constantly vigilant in their cleaning protocols and procedures, due to multi-drug resistant organisms. So, for healthcare facility managers and staff who carry a big responsibility for the health and safety of patients, making hygiene a priority with effective cleaning systems and strategies is crucial for encouraging better health outcomes.

Surveys show that hygiene matters

According to recent surveys by Essity, a global health and hygiene company and maker of the Tork Professional Hygiene global brand, people agree that cleanliness in hospitals and healthcare facilities is especially important. In fact, Americans hold hospitals and healthcare facilities to the highest standards of cleanliness, with nearly 9 in 10 Americans (88%) saying it is ‘very important’ for them to be clean. Although most people perceive hospitals and healthcare facilities to be among the cleanest public spaces, some (13%) still consider them dirty.

This begs the question: what can be done to change people’s perception of hygiene in healthcare settings? And more importantly, how can healthcare facility managers and staff improve patients’ health, while also boosting operational efficiencies through a new commitment to hygiene?

Harnessing technology to boost hygiene

One way is through harnessing the power of technology. We live in a world where technology is seamlessly integrated into our everyday lives. From online shopping to information gathering, people have come to rely on technology to make their lives easier and more efficient. So, it seems like a natural progression for businesses and organizations to offer digital-based hygiene solutions as well to create the same benefits.

Essity’s survey results show that people have a positive view on technology and the role it can play in their everyday lives and for boosting efficiency. Specifically, 83 percent of people said that technology can be utilized to positively improve people’s experiences and 79 percent of people thought that technology should be integrated wherever it can improve efficiency.

These key takeaways should encourage businesses and organizations to adopt technology-based solutions to advance hygiene standards. For healthcare facility teams in particular who have to juggle competing priorities and challenges on a daily basis, shifting towards a technological solution is a logical step that can create a number of opportunities leading to better health outcomes and increased operational efficiencies in managing inventory costs, prioritizing cleaning staff’s time, and reducing waste.

The shift towards data driven cleaning

As more businesses and organizations look for ways to improve their decision-making, digital innovations such as internet-connected cleaning devices have the potential to radically alter the way we invest in hygiene infrastructures in public spaces. Data is driving change in almost every industry, and improving efficiencies by allowing better use of resources. Data driven cleaning can be especially helpful for handling large, complex facilities like hospitals that are spread out over a big geographical area, have high levels of fluctuating traffic and face higher hygiene standards.  

Facility management software is one data driven tool that can help ease the healthcare industry’s transition from conducting static rounds of cleaning towards proactive, need-based cleaning.  Conventional towel dispensers require cleaning staff to open each dispenser to check the supply level, requiring additional time and potentially impacting people’s ability to wash and dry their hands, if a refill is needed before the cleaning staff conducts their rounds. But data-driven cleaning eliminates these inefficiencies, allowing staff to identify cleaning needs before they become problems and not waste time finding out what those needs are.

Simple, innovative technology solutions such as Tork EasyCube® Intelligent Facility Cleaning System can help managers clean more efficiently – enabling facilities to exercise greater control over their environment. Sensor technology in connected devices such as soap and paper towel dispensers provide a variety of data such as supply levels, guest traffic trends and refill needs patterns. This data is continuously transmitted to the Tork EasyCube facility management software and displayed in a web application, directing cleaning teams to where they are needed most.    

With the help of real-time information, facility management software helps cleaning management make the best use of their resources, both on a daily basis and in the future. For example, real time data that’s collected can make it simple for hospitals to support hand hygiene by ensuring restrooms are adequately stocked with handwashing must-haves before they run out. Instant access to data means that cleaning teams and staff in healthcare environments are empowered to act on immediate cleaning and supply needs and take action when and where it is needed, leading to improved cleaning operations, maximized efficiency, reduced waste and a new standard of hygiene.

The result of integrating smart technology in healthcare facilities is a new cleaning logic with benefits that go beyond providing higher quality cleaning. Taking the guesswork out of cleaning large, complex spaces such as hospitals or clinics leads to better operational efficiencies and cost reduction, since supply use is maximized and doesn’t go to waste. In turn, making the most of resources and reducing the waste of supplies such as paper towels promotes sustainability.

Most importantly, increased hygiene in healthcare facilities makes it easier for doctors and nurses to focus on treating patients and keeping them healthy, while staff can ensure that areas most susceptible to germs will no longer present the same risk of spreading harmful infections to patients. Needs based cleaning also helps staff, patients and visitors to practice good hand hygiene in washrooms, further preventing germ spread and protecting everyone in the hospital or clinic.  

Tom Bergin is the Healthcare and Industrial Marketing Director for Essity Professional Hygiene North America.