bucket on the cart, which can hold up to 20 pads. The worker then brings the cart to the series of rooms that need cleaning. In the first room, they will take out one of the already pre-impregnated cleaning pads, attach it to the top of the mop, and proceed to clean the floor. When they are finished, they will remove the dirty cleaning pad and places it in the cart’s laundry bag. The cleaner will then move on to the next room, where they will take out a new pad for the cleaning of that room. At the end of the shift, the dirty pads in the laundry bag are simply sent to be
as to do so they must walk down the hallway to the cleaning cupboards where there is a water source, then carry the buckets all the way back to the room they must clean. This is both physically tiring for the staff and highly inefficient.
The solution After a thorough search of the most innovative cleaning solutions on the market, Initial Hospital Services chose the Rubbermaid Commercial Products Microfibre Cleaning System. The solution consists of a cart with a laundry bag, a charging bucket, and a mop whose head is fitted with changeable Microfibre cleaning pads. These cleaning pads are made of Microfibre material, which is much more effective than cotton for cleaning.
The system is designed so that the cleaning worker can ‘pre-impregnate’ the cleaning pads (i.e. wet them with the proper dosage of water and detergent) and store them in the charging
washed. Assuming one pad is used per room although more may be required for larger rooms, a cleaning worker should be able to clean 20 single-bedded rooms with one cart.
The benefits Several key factors were responsible for Initial Hospital Services’ decision to choose the Rubbermaid Microfibre Cleaning System. One major reason is that the cleaning system provides a complete solution. That is, the cart acts as a workstation which equips the cleaning worker with everything he needs for floor cleaning. “You really need a trolley like the one provided by Rubbermaid in order to clean effectively,” explained Mr. Les McKain, Contract General Manager of Initial Hospital Services at Croydon University Hospital.
Another benefit of the new system is that it takes away the subjectivity of the individual cleaner in terms of deciding when the water needs to be changed. There is no ‘re-dipping’
40 | TOMORROW’S CLEANING | The future of our cleaning industry HEALTHCARE & HOSPITAL HYGIENE
of the pad into a potentially dirty water bucket, and the use of a new pad for each room cleaned eliminates the risk of cross- contamination between different rooms. With the new system, cleaning pads are soaked in just the right dosage of water and chlorine to clean a room, without there being any need for the cleaner to add additional water or chemicals to the floor when cleaning. This means a large reduction in both water and chemicals used since the old system relied heavily on changing the water frequently and using high levels of chemicals in order to disinfect properly. From a financial perspective, there are also significant cost savings to be gleaned from the reduction in chemicals. Moreover, the new system has important safety benefits since the reduction in water used means that floors will never be so wet after cleaning as to cause people to slip.
Lastly, the new solution severely reduces worker fatigue. Cleaning workers no longer have to walk down the hallway to obtain fresh water from the cleaning cupboards after cleaning each room, or several times while cleaning the same room. Instead, the cleaner can prepare the cart with 20 pads already impregnated with water and solution and likely use it throughout his or her entire shift. Ms. Katarzyna Karna, a member of the cleaning team at Croydon University Hospital said: “The mop is much lighter than the previous one. Its length can also be adjusted according to the height of the user and it has a special ergonomic handle that makes it more comfortable to use. It has really made it easier for us to clean.”
Overall, Initial Hospital Services chose the Rubbermaid solution because it provides a complete cleaning workstation, uses chlorine-resistant Microfibre technology and also because of the outstanding support received from the Rubbermaid sales staff.
www.rubbermaidcommercial.com
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