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How to ensure you pass your next CQC audit as a care provider

Would you pass your next CQC audit?

As a care provider, be it a GP Surgery, dentist, care home or private clinic, it is essential that you maintain stringent hygiene standards.

Maintaining a clean environment:

  • Ensures patient and staff safety
  • Prevents and controls infections
  • Reassures patients

But following the update to the UK government’s National Standards of Healthcare Cleanliness, care providers must ensure they adhere to specific criteria regulated by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

The CQC is an independent regulatory body operating throughout the UK that monitors, inspects, and regulates health and social care providers.

New frameworks – CQC Key Questions and Quality Statements

The new framework employed by the CQC ensures that care providers adhere to standards across five key areas:

  1. Safety
  2. Effectiveness
  3. Care
  4. Responsivity
  5. Leadership

These are known as quality statements. Which the CQC defines as “the commitments that providers, commissioners, and system leaders should live up to.”

To ensure your premises meets safety standards, they must be clean, well-maintained and hygienic.

How to pass your next CQC audit with flying colours

At ServiceMaster Clean Contract Services, we have:

  • Years of experience in the CQC market
  • Industry-leading specialist technology to clean spaces and equipment
  • Solutions and support with the paperwork required for audits

So, you can trust ServiceMaster Clean to keep your premises safe, CQC compliant, and looking good.

With ServiceMaster Clean, you’re in safe hands.

And we’ll make it work for you.

We know it’s never a one-service-suits-all, so we work closely with your teams to understand how you use your space.

We’ll also consider feedback from previous audits, tailoring our services package to fit you.

For:

  • Defined cleaning specifications
  • Flexible hours (to suit your practice)
  • A trusted, nationwide brand
  • Industry-leading technologies to help tackle specialist cleaning requirements
  • Dedicated management and regular site visits/ audits
  • Safe and systemised cleaning
  • Quick response and callouts
  • A team you can trust

Trust ServiceMaster Clean Contract Services to pass your next CQC audit with flying colours.

Are you worried about your next audit?

Don’t let stress about an audit impact your people or services.

Trust the professionals.

For specialist CQC-compliant cleaning trusted to deliver every time, call 0845 201 1184 or find your nearest ServiceMaster Clean Contract Services business today.

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Need a quick, comprehensive guide to floor maintenance?

With employees back in the office, how do you maintain your floors?

We might not think about our floors bearing the brunt of the UK’s changeable temperatures.

But, just like you, your commercial property also feels the chill of winter and highs of summer – particularly the flooring.

Luckily, the experts at ServiceMaster Clean are here with a guide to making your commercial floor maintenance easy.

Hard Surfaces

Many types of tile and hardwood commercial floors can require slightly different cleaning techniques.

However, you should always refer to your flooring manufacturer’s manual and test cleaning solutions in a small, inconspicuous area before starting to avoid costly damages.

When cleaning hardwood floors:

  • Sweep away visible debris to remove larger particles from the surface.
  • Use a semi-acidic floor cleaner or mix vinegar with water to neutralise and dissolve any remaining salt residue.
  • Refer to product instructions for dilution ratios.
  • Once the salt residue is suspended in the cleaner, use a mop to absorb the liquid.
  • If your floor’s finish has been damaged, use a stripper solution to remove it.
  • Apply the solution and let it sit for about 15 minutes. Add more as needed.
  • Refer to the specific stripping product’s label for exact instructions.

Safety Tip: Use floor fans and open windows to improve ventilation when working with harsh chemicals.

  • Use a scrubber to agitate the surface and strip the remaining finish.
  • Mop the floor with clean water to remove lingering chemicals from the cleaner and stripping solution.
  • Let the floor dry completely.
  • Apply two coats of sealing and a few fresh coats of finish for a floor that looks as good as new.

Soft Surfaces

Soft surfaces are equally affected by salt, mud, and melting snow or ice – if not more so.

The salt residue will leave a characteristic white and powdery residue on carpet surfaces, while chemicals can soak deep into the fibres and padding.

If water damage goes untreated, mould and mildew can grow and spread, leading to long-term issues.

How to Clean Commercial Carpets

Add absorbent doormats, umbrella stands and coat racks to your building’s entrance to reduce the amount of water that can reach your carpeted areas during the winter.

In warmer weather, follow these steps to clean your carpets.

  • Vacuum visible dirt particles and debris.
  • Use water and a residue-removing cleaning solution.
  • Let the solution soak into the carpet for approximately 15 minutes. Refer to the specific product for dilution ratios.
  • Use a wet vacuum to remove the solution, oils and dissolved residue.
  • Rinse with clean water and suction it out with a wet vacuum. You may find that you need to repeat steps 2-4 depending on the amount of damage.
  • Use carpet fans to dry the floor.

Need your premises cleaned to a high standard?

The time, energy, and heavy equipment required to clean commercial carpets can burden any business owner.

If you need carpet cleaning or hard floor maintenance, let the experts at ServiceMaster Clean do the work by finding your nearest ServiceMaster Clean business or calling 0800 021 3970.

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5 commonly overlooked areas to clean in your operating room

Best practices to keep your operating room safe and sterile.

At any medical facility, patient safety is a top priority.

So, operating rooms must be kept sterile to keep them safe throughout any procedure.

While you’re undoubtedly aware of the importance of cleaning the operating room before and after every surgery, your cleaning checklist might overlook some areas that can harbour dirt, dust and pathogens.

At ServiceMaster Clean, we have over 60 years of experience as a leader in the cleaning industry, so we know the importance of proper and professional healthcare cleaning.

We also know how difficult it can be to maintain this environment on top of everything else you have to do in any medical facility, especially amidst the ongoing stream of patients.

That’s why we’ve put together this list of five common trouble spots that we’ve observed when cleaning operating rooms, that are important to keep in mind to help reduce the risk of infection.

  1. Behind Equipment and Furnishings

You probably wipe down used equipment and furnishings like tables, carts, and stools after surgery to rid them of germs.

However, it’s also important to move these items so that you can clean underneath and behind them too.

When cleaning your operating room, make sure you pull furniture and equipment away from the wall so that you can sweep and mop behind these items.

Dust and debris also often collect in corners and underneath equipment, where they can harbour infectious agents.

Take the time to thoroughly clean behind these items to eliminate build-up that would reduce the sterility of your operating environment.

  1. Floors

Surfaces like the operating table might seem like the most germ-prone spots in your operating room, but the floors aren’t far behind. Bodily fluids and other substances can land on the floor during surgery, requiring a prompt clean-up.

There are approved methods and cleaning standards that any healthcare facility in the UK must follow, as set out by The National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA). This includes cleaning bodily fluids or blood from the floor.

At ServiceMaster Clean, we are constantly updating our policies and practices in line with these standards. Through regular audits, we also make sure that the right channels stay open between our staff and clients so that the facilities under our care maintain the best cleanliness and hygiene standards.

  1. Ceilings

It would be easy to assume the ceiling in your operating room is always going to stay untouched and spotless. However, ceilings can still harbour germs, dust and build-up.

This accumulated debris can eventually fall, posing a serious health risk during a procedure.

To mitigate this risk, ensure you regularly clean the ceiling and light fittings in your operating room.

The best way to do this is to use a microfibre cloth to easily wipe away any dust.

You should also take the opportunity to inspect the ceiling area for any spots that require more intensive clean-up and disinfection.

  1. Cabinets

As a standard practice, you may already wipe down the outside of the cabinets.

However, be sure not to overlook the interior, where germs can easily lurk until they are introduced into the room. (Think of how many hands reach into those cabinets during a given procedure!)

Always wipe down the cabinet shelves, handles and contents to minimise the spread of harmful agents during and after an operation.

  1. Biohazard Waste Bins

The biohazard waste bin in your operating room allows you to dispose of biohazard waste safely and properly. But even if your waste has been properly bagged and disposed of, the bin itself can be a hot spot for pathogens.

Take the time to properly disinfect all biohazard containers and waste bins to ensure that any medical waste doesn’t spread infectious diseases around your healthcare facility.

Need a new cleaner?

As an industry-leading provider of patient-centred healthcare cleaning services, we know that a properly cleaned operating room is a safe operating room.

By entrusting your nearest ServiceMaster Clean Contract Services business with the cleaning of your medical facility, you’re given the peace of mind that every room in your facility, operating room included, is being kept at the highest possible standard of clean, and, you get the time back to focus on what matters, your patients!

Give us a call today on 0800 021 3970 for more information on our services and book a free, no-obligation quotation.

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Top 5 reasons why you should have a clean desk

Is your workspace looking a little cluttered?

Whether in the office or working from home, your desk is the all-important hub of your work life.

So, it must be kept clean.

There are multiple reasons, beyond just aesthetic function. Some may even surprise you.

Here are our top 5 reasons why you should have a clean desk.

1. Health

Your desk is dirtier than you think, trust us.

According to OctoClean, the average desk can host more bacteria than a toilet seat. It’s 4000 times dirtier on average, in fact.

This is usually due to people eating at their desks and not cleaning up afterwards, so make sure you do!

Cleaning your desk by wiping it down and ensuring frequently used items such as your keyboard and mouse are cleaned and sanitised regularly will help stop the spread of germs and illness to you and your employees in the office.

2. Boost productivity

Nobody wants a cluttered workspace, do they? It’s been proven that a cluttered workspace can hurt productivity.

Keeping your desk organised and in the same place all the time will ensure you’ve made this a habit, meaning you’ll do it without thinking, giving your brain more valuable thinking time! Therefore, I am a lot more productive at work.

3. Aiding with stress

Don’t put more stress on yourself than you need to.

Similar to affecting your productivity a cluttered and dirty desk can increase stress by making it increasingly difficult to concentrate on your current task. Just take a quick few minutes every evening before you finish to clean and tidy your desk so you arrive the next morning in a welcoming environment.

4. First impressions count

Keeping your desk and the rest of the office is important to give your clients or guests the best first impression of your company.

Enforce a clean desk policy in your offices to ensure a good first impression is always accomplished.

5. Improved security

Don’t leave your desk cluttered, you could leave client information on the desk without knowing.

Again, a clean desk policy will ensure all staff keep their desk tidy and put all important documents away at the end of each day, hence improving your office security.

Hire the professionals

At ServiceMaster Clean Contract Services, we understand the importance of ensuring that your premises are clean, hygienic and safe for you, your employees, and your customers.

If it’s time to entrust the cleaning of your workplace to a high-quality and professional commercial supplier, find your nearest ServiceMaster Clean and learn more about our services today.

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How to carry out contact point disinfection