Urgent Care Cleaning – 5 Tips For Hiring a Service Provider
There are many things to consider when it comes to urgent care cleaning services and some are more obvious than others. For instance, ensuring that your provider has urgent care experience may be a no-brainer, but planning for high patient traffic and building size may not be on your radar. Here are five things to consider when hiring a cleaning services provider for your urgent care facility:
1) Frequency of Urgent Care Cleaning
Obviously, an urgent care facility should be cleaned on a regular basis. Due to the very nature of your services, some areas of your facility need to be cleaned regularly throughout the day. Your staff likely manages the cleaning and disinfecting of examination rooms and equipment between patient visits. Your cleaning services provider is responsible for thorough cleaning and disinfecting during slower business hours.
How often your facility requires thorough cleanings depends on the amount of foot traffic, traffic flow patterns, and other considerations. If your facility provides 24-hour services and receives a great deal of traffic, you may want to consider porter and matron services in addition to daily cleaning and disinfecting. On the other hand, if your facility is open from nine to five, nightly cleaning and disinfecting may suffice.
A professional urgent care cleaning provider should be able to help you evaluate all aspects of your unique facility and propose an appropriate cleaning regimen.
2) Size of Your Urgent Care Facility
The size of your facility will impact the costs associated with maintaining a clean and safe environment. Larger facilities will require more cleaning personnel, more cleaning chemicals and equipment, and more time to clean.
Experienced commercial cleaning companies will want to perform an on-site evaluation of your facility to fully understand your specific needs. In addition, an on-site evaluation allows the cleaning company to develop a customized cleaning plan for their staff to follow. This will allow the cleaning crew to clean your facility in the most cost-effective and efficient way possible.
3) Unique Needs
Every urgent care facility is different and each has unique needs. It is important that your cleaning services provider be aware of the unique needs of your facility.
Does your facility require restrooms to be cleaned more than once per day? Does your patient population consist of mostly elderly individuals? Children? Homeless populations? These are all things that make your facility unique and can impact both the type and regularity of cleaning.
Be sure to provide to your commercial cleaning partners as much information about your facility as possible. It will help them to provide appropriate services and help ensure your satisfaction.
4) Urgent Care Regulatory Compliance
Healthcare is one of the most regulated industries in the world. It is vital that your urgent care cleaning provider is aware of and compliant with all regulations imposed on your industry.
Your cleaning services provider should have training systems and processes in place to ensure that their staff understands the importance of regulatory compliance. From HIPAA regulations and biological waste disposal to blood-borne pathogen safety and sharps handling.
Ask prospective providers about the training programs they have in place and certifications they have earned with regard to regulatory compliance.
5) Communication
Communication (or the lack thereof) can make or break a relationship between your urgent care facility and a cleaning services provider. Your provider should provide you with a dedicated contact person that is assigned to your facility as well as a backup contact in case of emergency.
It is imperative that there be a clear chain of command and open lines of communication to ensure that your facility’s needs are met. Here are some things to consider when discussing responsive communication:
- Is there a primary and secondary contact for both your Urgent Care center and with the cleaning services provider?
- What is the definition of an emergency issue? What is the expected response time?
- How should you communicate? E-mail? Client portal? Direct call? Text?
- Is it your expectation that any of your staff members have the ability to engage your cleaning company?
- How often should you have formal walk-throughs and conversations? Also, who should be present?
There are other things to consider when hiring an urgent care cleaning provider for your urgent care facility. Healthcare cleaning experience, references, online reviews, and cost, just to name a few. But the real goal is to find a highly capable provider with whom you can build a long-term relationship.
If you need help with your urgent care cleaning needs, call or contact Complete Care Maintenance. We have years of experience providing cleaning services to the healthcare industry and will be happy to provide a free consultation.