Pandemic Brings Spotlight to Environmental Services

In-house staff needs to be familiar with the most common and highly transmissible and infectious germs found in public spaces


Keeping it clean has never been a higher priority for healthcare facility managers, and housekeeping departments have never received so much attention. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread, managers and their staffs are paying closer attention than ever to ensuring the sanitization of surfaces and areas in their facilities.

In 2020, there has been an immense focus on infection control of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 disease. But over the past decade, there has been a growing appreciation that environmental contamination of hospital surfaces promotes infection transmission for many pathogens, according to Fierce Healthcare.

To prevent the spread of the coronavirus and other emerging multidrug resistant organisms, hospitals and other healthcare facilities have implemented essential universal infection control strategies in their healthcare systems that include wearing a mask, optimal hand hygiene and cleaning the environment.

To implement infection prevention and control protocols designed to protect patients, staff and visitors, in-house housekeeping staff needs to be familiar with the most common and highly transmissible and infectious germs found in public spaces. This is why the implementation of environmental disinfection strategies to interrupt transmission to prevent the spread of infections is extremely important.

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December 29, 2020


Topic Area: Environmental Services


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