How Hospitals Stay Clean And Sanitized Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic
The pandemic is far from over as people in the United States and around the globe continue to get sick and pass away. As COVID-19 rages on, it’s essential now more than ever that hospitals stay clean and sanitized so COVID-19 patients do not spread the virus to medical professionals or other patients.
But how do hospitals actually stay clean and sanitized? How do you know that touching a chair in the hospital won’t give you the virus? While there are no 100% safety guarantees, hospitals take every precaution to sanitize their spaces to limit the spread of COVID-19 and keep their patients protected. Here is a version of the step-by-step process of how a hospital room is thoroughly disinfected.
Everything is Cleaned:
To prepare a hospital room for a new patient, any potentially contaminated materials that were in the room with the previous patient are removed for cleaning. This includes any linens, supplies, and curtains. While these materials are removed for cleaning, everything else in the room is wiped down and sanitized thoroughly, including light fixtures and airways.
Even the ceilings are wiped with disinfectant, and if a room has carpets on the floor, they too will be thoroughly cleaned, potentially by a highly-regarded commercial carpet cleaning service. If any items cannot be cleaned, they are thrown away immediately.
The Area is Fogged:
After everything’s been cleaned, an Environmental Protection Agency approved electrostatic disinfectant is sprayed in the area, creating a fog that clings to surfaces and targets and destroys COVID-19 molecules. However, due to the inter workings of hospital air ducts, some rooms cannot be fogged. In this case, a room must be left vacant for a certain amount of time before a new occupant can come in.
Everything is Cleaned Again:
Nothing is overkill when it comes to the COVID-19 virus, which is why the fogging is followed by a second room cleaning that looks an awful lot like the first one. Everything — from the floor to the ceiling to the supplies to the curtains — is wiped down and disinfected a second time so that the room is immaculate and pristine, making it safe for both the incoming patient and the nurses and doctors that will tend to him/her.
The Area is Tested for COVID-19:
You might be surprised to learn that it’s not just people who go through a COVID-19 test; the hospital area must undergo a series of reliable virus tests before it is deemed safe for a new patient (though, of course, it looks a bit different than a drive-through test that works through the nostrils). Both the air and hard surfaces in the room are tested; a device captures molecules from the air, and samples are collected from areas that are often touched by health care workers and patients, such as bathroom faucet handles, doorknobs, and the arms of a hospital bed or chairs.
If the Virus is Present, The Room is Cleaned Again:
Once the COVID-19 tests come back, hospital employees have to decide what to do next. If all tests are negative, then the room is good to go, and a new patient can be invited in for their hopefully brief stay. However, if any of the tests come back positive, then the process is restarted; the room is cleaned, fogged, cleaned again, and retested for COVID-19. This happens if even one out of six or seven tests come back positive, as hospital employees take no chances when it comes to safety.
As the COVID-19 death toll in the United States and around the world continues to climb, it’s critical that hospitals are taking any and all precautions they can to ensure that patients and front line workers are not put at risk. Those who clean the hospitals are the unsung heroes of the pandemic; they’re the reason their patients recover and their colleagues can continue to save lives.
