Where are germs hiding in your medical practice?
How clean is your medical practice really? You make sure the patient rooms are disinfected, everything looks organized, trash is empty, and the floors have been cleaned, but what are you missing? Probable the things you cannot see?
Of course all of these things are important and absolutely critical for a great first impression, employee health and morale but what about the hidden health dangers hiding in your staffs personal workspace that are often overlooked and could be costing you in terms of lost productivity?
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, illness like the flu spread from person to person through cross contamination. Droplets from a cough or sneeze from an ill person travel through the air or surfaces, eventually infecting people nearby. The germs in these droplets live on surfaces such as desks, doorknobs, and magazines, and can live for two hours or more, eventually spreading onto the hands, mouths, and noses of health people. This cross contamination spreads like wildfire from one sick person leading into your whole office.
Here are just a few areas you should be mindful about when it comes to cross contamination:
Phones
Phones are covered in germs because they are held so close to a persons mouth making it easy to spread germs to another person. The entire phone should be cleaned and disinfected to reduce the spread of germs.
Keyboards
Keyboard are a breeding ground for germs especially shared keyboard such as your checkin or keyboards in your patient rooms. It is important to remove all food and dust from in-between the keys and properly disinfect the keys.
Chair Arms
Take a moment to think about how many times you touch your chair arms. Its not something we think about very often but they get missed more often than not. It is important to disinfect them during your normal cleaning.
How much money are you loosing due to worker illness? A recent study reports an estimated $150 billion and $250 billion are lost annually due to workers illness. Take a few minutes to remind your staff to disinfect their workspace and make cleaning products readily available so they can do so. It is a good idea to post proper hand washing signs in all restrooms as a preventive measure.
Want to learn more on how we help customers avoid lost productivity due to illness? We would be happy to walk through your facility to point out areas that are being missed by your current cleaner.
