HOSPITAL CLEANING
‘Delivering evidence-based safe systems of cleaning’
Donna Brown, managing director of ISS Healthcare, explains how the company, whose Healthcare Cleaning arm had considerable input into the development of the recently published National Standards of Healthcare Cleanliness 2021, has commissioned what it dubs ‘a ground-breaking project using science to determine the efficacy and appropriateness of the healthcare cleaning process’.
The global pandemic has increased the knowledge and awareness of the public to act positively to reducing the spread of the COVID-19 virus. The science of infection, prevention, and control, applied in small changes of behaviours, can make a huge impact. ISS is taking this a step further by initiating a new study to collect scientific data to provide evidence-based processes to support delivery of healthcare cleanliness. ISS has been at the forefront of healthcare cleaning for over 30 years. The company has a long track record of delivering innovative solutions, and, based upon our research in Scandinavia, was the first to offer scientific evidence that introducing microfibre into the NHS would offer a positive improvement.
Having launched our healthcare cleaning strategy and focus for 2021/2022 earlier in the year, ISS Healthcare has now taken its approach one stage further by commissioning a ground-breaking project that will take a scientific and behavioural approach to the professional services we provide across 200+ NHS locations. ISS’s strategic ambition centres on this project. Collette Sweeney, head of Healthcare Cleaning at ISS, said: “The application of cleaning science and the impact of behaviour are intrinsically linked to environmental infection control. The purpose of the project is to use science to determine the efficacy and appropriateness of the healthcare cleaning process to deliver evidence-based safe systems of cleaning. Hospital hygiene is traditionally assessed visually, but this does not necessarily correlate with microbiological risk.”
Challenging ‘blanket conventional standards’ The project is considered so innovative that the Group Head of Strategic Growth at ISS, Andrew Price, has taken a keen interest in the development of the plans. “What we want to challenge”, he explains, “are the blanket conventional standards that are not always the best ways of approaching things now that we have
ISS says the business’s aim is to transform its healthcare cleaners into ‘environmental placemakers’.
better understanding and far superior technology”.
The company had already been talking with its supply chain, who agree that most current tests look for specific microbes such as MRSA, while the use of a Total Viable Count (TVC) broad-based approach which counts all microorganisms would provide a broader picture of microbiological presence.
This resonated with the ISS team, as we had long been concerned about the desiccated (dry) areas, as well as the hydrated (wet) surfaces. Collette Sweeney firmly believes that the NHS must be at the forefront of such research, so set about making a business case to follow this through. Everyone was delighted when a well-known and respected Professor agreed to join the
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team to lend his vast experience to the project. Collette Sweeney and her team, who worked closely with NHS England and NHS Improvement in the development of the recently published National Standards of Healthcare Cleanliness 2021, believe that using science to validate the cleaning process will build confidence throughout the NHS, support shorter patient stays, and, ultimately, provide a safe clinical environment to help save lives, not just during the COVID pandemic, but beyond.
Collaborative approach The successful delivery of this project centres on a collaborative approach between the ISS research and development team and the NHS. Working with the University Hospitals of Burton
There has never been a better time to demonstrate not just being visibly clean, but clinically clean. Hospital cleanliness is high on everyone’s agenda
October 2021 Health Estate Journal 77
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