Category: Health Care

Home / Health Care
Our Kleen Team provides hospital cleaning services in Madison, WI and beyond.
June 8, 2023 BY
IN Contract Cleaning, Health Care

Things to Consider When Looking for Hospital Cleaning Services in Madison, WI

Follow these guidelines to find the best cleaning provider for your organization.

 

Our Kleen Team provides hospital cleaning services in Madison, WI and beyond.In the healthcare industry, having a clean facility isn’t just about looking professional for visitors and patients — an improperly sanitized exam room can leave patients vulnerable to bacteria and viruses on unclean surfaces and even increase the risk of health complications. Finding hospital cleaning services in Madison, WI, that you trust is a vital step in keeping your facility safe.

 

A thorough, properly-trained cleaning team is a must in order to ensure the highest levels of safety and hygiene for your patients, staff, and visitors. But how do you know the commercial cleaning company you’re working with has the expertise and training you need to keep everyone who passes through your facility happy and healthy?

 

If you are looking for reliable and experienced hospital cleaning services in the Madison, WI, area, here are a few important things to consider before hiring.

 

Communication

 

The commercial cleaning service you work with must be responsive and available. Emergencies in healthcare are often true emergencies and require a rapid response. You want to be assured that your requests will be responded to and fulfilled in a timely manner. With KleenMark, your hospital or healthcare facility will have a dedicated local account manager you can contact should any issues arise outside of your facility’s normal cleaning needs.

 

Proper certifications & safety training

 

Your hospital cleaning service should be appropriately certified and trained in the areas relevant to your business, such as sanitization and disease prevention.

 

KleenMark’s healthcare and hospital cleaning services are backed by 60 years of industry knowledge and innovation. We have a number of third-party certifications related to environmental cleaning standards, overall excellence in cleaning, and, most relevant to healthcare, many of our cleaners are Global Biorisk Advisory Council (GBAC) trained. This means they have the knowledge, planning, and processes needed to respond to a biohazard crisis in your healthcare facility.

 

This type of training is essential to help beat the spread of COVID-19 and other communicable diseases and keep your staff free from other impending illnesses. Read more about our safety certifications here.

 

Unique needs

 

Each medical office or hospital has many unique needs, and no two facilities are the same. You deserve a cleaning service provider who understands this! At KleenMark, we make sure that we understand your facility and its particular needs before our team ever comes on-site. We also work to maintain an open dialogue as issues or problems arise; your feedback is vital to a great working relationship. We understand that policies and procedures often change, and we are able to adapt quickly.

 

As a healthcare provider, you want to go above and beyond to provide your patients with a top-notch experience. At KleenMark, we strive to do the very same for our clients.

 

To discover the KleenMark difference in hospital cleaning services in Madison, WI and beyond for yourself, check out our healthcare services page, contact our team with any questions, or request a quote today!
December 9, 2021 BY
IN Coronavirus, COVID-19, Disinfection, Facility Management, Health Care, Manufacturing, Office Cleaning, Services

Force of Infection: What is it, does it matter for disinfection?

Since the pandemic hit, you’ve probably learned a lot of new germ-related terms. But one you may not be that familiar with is force of infection, an important thing to consider as you determine the future of your facility’s disinfection program.

Force of infection, or FOI, is the rate at which individuals in a population acquire an infectious disease over a period of time. In layman’s terms, FOI shows how many people are getting sick and how quickly it’s happening.

So, why does this matter to you? Because as you consider what your long-term disinfection protocol will look like, you need to know that FOI has the potential to be impacted by germ-covered sources, making it important to continue disinfecting surfaces.

Why You Need to Understand Force of Infection

This year, the journal NPJ Vaccines published the article “Force of infection: a determinant of vaccine efficacy?” The journal, which is part of Nature Magazine is a scientific publication dedicated to highlighting the most important advances in vaccine research and development.

The focus of the article was to examine whether a lower FOI impacts the effectiveness of vaccines. In the study, they looked at two groups of people: One that had received a rotavirus (diarrhea) vaccine and another that was given a malaria vaccine. In both instances, a lower FOI led to higher vaccine efficacy (VE).

The question then becomes: Do non-pharmaceutical interventions (this is a fancy term for bucketing things like disinfectants and proper PPE usage into one group) help lower force of infection?

In the NPJ Vaccines article, the author argues that, yes, proper disinfection efforts could reduce FOI and “therefore enhance or sustain VE”. Therefore, in the context of a pandemic, continuing to use non-pharmaceutical interventions to manage disease spread “seems prudent and … quite urgent.”

As the number of new COVID-19 cases ebbs and flows, and as new variants continue to pop up, we felt that it’s important to highlight the ongoing role proper disinfection can play in reducing the presence of germs that could impact force of infection, and subsequently the health of your employees and visitors.

Develop a Disinfection Program That Works

To ensure your facility is on top of its disinfection game, you need to incorporate several elements into your cleaning program.

Day Porter Disinfection

Yes, most deep cleaning happens when your facility is empty. But with people coming and going, it’s important you maintain a high level of cleanliness. This not only improves the health of your facility but it also gives people the peace of mind that you’re taking intentional steps to reduce the amount of germs in your building. Adding an extra day porter – or reassigning your existing day-cleaning staff – will allow you to focus on keeping high-traffic areas clean and disinfected. With more people using more soap, hand sanitizer and towels, they’ll also focus on keeping those products stocked. This day-cleaning checklist is a good place to start.

High-touchpoint Disinfection

You’ve probably heard us talk about this before, but that’s only because of its importance. You need to disinfect frequently touched surfaces multiple times each day using approved chemicals from the Environmental Protection Agency’s List N. Each chemical on this list is proven to kill COVID-19. To learn how to properly disinfect, watch this quick video.

Confirmed case? Time to spray.

While proactive electrostatic spraying still has benefits, we always recommend using it after a confirmed COVID-19 exposure in your facility. Electrostatic sprayers have technology that ensures disinfectant “sticks” to every surface and kills germs. Because it is sprayed as a mist, it’s easy to blanket all hard surfaces.

To learn more about the benefits of electrostatic spraying and how it works, read Do I Need an Electrostatic Sprayer for Disinfection?
November 23, 2021 BY
IN Health Care, Staffing

Healthcare Cleaning: The Key to Developing Well-trained Teams

When it comes to healthcare cleaning, sanitizing and disinfection, having poorly trained or ill prepared staff isn’t an option. If those workers don’t understand a healthcare facility’s specific needs, it can result in costly, dangerous errors.

Along with looking for experience and certifications, always ask how your cleaning partner recruits, onboards, trains and supports the workers responsible for keeping your hospitals and clinics safe.

Healthcare Cleaning Requires Specialized Recruiting and Onboarding

A healthcare cleaner’s skills are significantly different than those of someone cleaning an office. That means a cleaning company needs to understand what to look for and how to recruit staff that can handle additional responsibilities and needs.

We have dedicated recruiters in house at KleenMark, including a team focused solely on the medical field. This is essential. It allows a cleaning company to quickly ramp up and ensure they’re hiring people qualified to work in healthcare.

And, once they’re in the door the focus is on a proven onboarding process. Right out of the gate, they’re trained on relevant standards from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO). This ensures they understand we’re responsible for specific standards that keep people safe and keep a healthcare facility compliant.

New healthcare cleaning technicians immediately undergo background checks, have their vaccinations verified and updated as needed, and begin to acquaint them with the essentials needed to work in a healthcare facility.

On-the-job Training: A Safe, Tiered Approach

Our medical team leaders are meticulous, having worked in the industry a combined 40-plus years. So, as you can imagine they take a thorough, safe approach to training new healthcare cleaning technicians.

During the first 1-2 months (if not longer), each person starts as a medical general cleaner. They learn the basics and prove they’re hitting our standards. During this time they’re highly supervised, with a veteran healthcare supervisor over their shoulder.

Once they’ve proven competence in all levels, they move into a role as a pre-/post-op cleaner. They learn more detailed and stringent cleaning and disinfecting standards, which allows them to handle a range of needs, from ambulatory centers to specialty clinics.

Ultimately, they reach a level of expertise to become operating room cleaners. This means they can handle any cleaning and disinfection need, from restrooms to a terminal clean.

When you’re looking for an outside cleaning partner, be sure to verify they follow a similar approach. This leads to consistent results and less turnover, both of which are essential in healthcare.

In-the-field Leadership

This is straightforward but the significance cannot be overstated. In most instances, cleaning companies have an off-site supervisor or two and then you have to go to corporate to find leadership.

That’s now how we roll and it’s not what you should settle for. Our director of medical operations is in the field – daily. He’s checking on his teams, providing support, training and auditing results. This is what it takes to run an effective healthcare cleaning program. Anything else isn’t sufficient.

Additionally, we have two medical managers and two assistant managers, as well as multiple levels of on-site and in-field supervision, overseeing each individual location. 

Our expert-trained and tenured supervisors manage day-to-day operations, performance and ensure our medical teams always maintain the highest level of quality. They’re the backbone of a structure that has allowed us to be incredibly responsive and accountable when cleaning healthcare facilities.

After 20 years of cleaning healthcare facilities, we’ve found this is what it takes to do the job right. And it’s what’s key to preventing costly errors. If you’re curious or want to go into more detail about how we train our teams, send us an email any time.
November 23, 2021 BY
IN Coronavirus, COVID-19, Disinfection, Health Care

Infection Control: Is your cleaning company qualified?

When it comes to infection control in your hospitals, clinics and labs, there isn’t room for error. That we can agree on. But what should you look for to ensure the cleaning company you’ve hired is truly up to handling the stringent requirements you have?

To start, look for two things: Experience and TRUSTED certification.

Experience Handling Infection Control

Let’s face it, nothing beats decades of experience. Understanding the ins and outs of a healthcare facility’s nuanced needs is complex, especially when it comes to infection control.

We like to think of our healthcare teams as our special forces of cleaning. Not only does the team undergo extensive training, but they’re led by in-the-field veterans, including our director and manager who together have over 40 years of experience working in complex and large healthcare systems.

With that experience comes dialed-in processes, meaning you don’t have to wait for your cleaning crew to get up to speed. They know what they need to do when they walk through the door.

For instance, consider terminal cleaning procedures required in operating rooms. Along with what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other organizations require, our Kleeners have a 25-point cleaning process that guides them through EACH terminal cleaning. But we don’t only rely on process when it comes to operating rooms, we verify our work with ATP testing.

Whenever considering a new cleaning partner, or when auditing your existing partner, dig deep into their processes and in-the-field experience. Always require they “show” their work.

Achieving GBAC Standards

A lot of organizations claim they’re trained to handle infection control needs. We saw it all too frequently during the pandemic, and I doubt the claims will cease overnight.

For that reason, look for credible third-party validation. The most trusted certification comes from the Global Biorisk Advisory Council (GBAC), which is a division of ISSA. GBAC accreditation and training ensures your cleaners meet stringent, evidence-based standards for cleaning, infection control and disinfection. Subsequently, it elevates the reputation of your facility.

It’s important, too, that more than the organization’s leadership team is trained. At KleenMark, which has specialized in healthcare cleaning for years, we have more than 100 operators trained as GBAC technicians, ranging from supervisors to frontline cleaners.

As GBAC-trained technicians, they study cleaning theory, infectious disease prevention and control techniques, and medical grade disinfection. That means they’ll always have the most up-to-date information available to keep facilities clean and safe. 

I share all this because it’s important to know what to look for no matter who you partner with. If you want to learn more about our experience and certifications, don’t hesitate to send us a note any time.
November 2, 2021 BY
IN Cleaner’s Corner, Contract Cleaning, Facility Management, Health Care, Services

Cleaner’s Corner: Why your janitorial company needs to understand JCAHO

Question: Is it important that a cleaning company understands healthcare rules and regulations, specifically those from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO)?

Tenzin Kunga, Medical Operations Assistant Manager:

One. Hundred. Percent. Having worked on both sides of the fence, if you will, I’ve seen the benefits for a healthcare facility when its cleaning partner has a clear understanding of what’s expected from the JCAHO.

Any of us who work in the space are aware of JCAHO’s role, but as a refresher it’s a 70-year-old nonprofit organization that accredits more than 22,000 health care organizations in the U.S. That includes hospitals, clinics, labs and more.

JCAHO is focused on assuring patient safety and quality of care – a mission we all can agree is important. As part of that mission, JCAHO measures more than 250 standards organizations must meet to maintain their accreditations.

And, yep, you guessed it: Infection control is a big part of JCAHO’s standards. That means your cleaning company needs to fully understand those standards, given the fact JCAHO will randomly audit a facility with no advance warning.

At KleenMark, we’re one of few cleaning companies that has a dedicated health and safety officer. His focus is on staying up-to-date on the latest health & safety regulations, best practices and standards. He then provides regular training to our healthcare teams.

Additionally, our healthcare leadership team has worked exclusively in clinics, hospitals and labs for the past 20-plus years. We know what matters most for patient safety, your infection control team and, of course, JCAHO. From waste streams to how to properly change gloves, we get it.

So, yes, it’s incredibly important your cleaning team understands JCAHO standards. Not only will they keep your facility clean and safe, but they’ll also understand the nuanced needs without any additional training needed from your internal team. And they’ll have tracked and recorded the cleaning process, so you’re ready for an impromptu audit.

If you want to learn more about how we train our healthcare cleaning teams, or our process in general, send us a note any time.
September 28, 2021 BY
IN Facility Management, Health Care

Waste Stream Management: Keeping Cleaners from Making Costly Mistakes

For health care facilities, it’s not only the infection control teams that need to understand waste stream management – it’s as important that your cleaning crews have a firm grasp on how to properly dispose of an array of items.

Why? Well, health and safety are the obvious reasons. Gallons of blood doesn’t belong in the dumpster, nor do you want needles floating around the recycling bin. But, a well-trained team can also protect you from potentially costly fines that can sneak up on you if crews aren’t well versed in waste management – even if the mistake is an honest one.

Color coding. So we’re on the same page.

If you’re reading this it’s highly likely you’re aware of the color-coding system healthcare systems have adopted. While it can vary, it generally looks like this:

Yellow – Chemotherapy drugs and associated medical supplies
Red – Biohazards such as bodily fluids, sharps, etc.
Black – Non-biohazardous pharmaceutical waste
White – Medical recyclables

Nuanced Training Matters

All of our healthcare cleaning crews undergo extensive training, ranging from on-site procedures to in-depth practice with our healthcare leadership team and health & safety officer.

We’re regimented in our teaching, so understanding the color-coded system is a must. For us, that’s table stakes.

But, it goes beyond that. It’s critical our cleaning crews understand the specifics to help you prevent potential fines being issued against your organization. What do I mean?

Well, for instance, if “recyclables” are dry, they can be recycled in a white container. But, if they contain more than 2% liquid they have to go into a black container. The same goes for blood. If, less than 2% of the item contains blood, then it can go in a black container. Otherwise, it needs go into a red one.

Plenty of other examples exist, but I imagine you’re aware of them. The point is, it’s critical to ensure your cleaners – on staff and part of your commercial cleaning company – clearly understand how to handle each and every item.

If they don’t understand, as mentioned earlier, it can be costly. Like six-figure costly.

What a Mistake Can Cost

We’ll leave you with this quick story …

This is a true instance that led to a steep fine for a healthcare organization. An employee, who worked as part of the janitorial team, was trying to be efficient. To save time, he put all the trash bags he had gathered into the dumpster.

Now, he wasn’t trying to do anything wrong. Had no ill intentions. He was simply not well trained. So, along with those bags, he also threw a 3-gallon sharps container into the dumpster to shave a few seconds. That mistake ended up costing the company over $100,000 in fines.

I share this as a sobering reminder that it pays to be diligent with the details, and it’s a must for cleaning crews operating in healthcare facilities. Our teams are among the most extensively trained folks in the business because we realize what one mistake can lead to.

If you’re curious about how we train our teams and approach cleaning in health care facilities, send us a note any time.

About the Author

Tenzin Kunga is KleenMark’s Medical Operations Assistant Manager. With decades of experience, Tenzin oversees some of the most sophisticated medical cleaning programs for healthcare facilities throughout Wisconsin.
February 24, 2021 BY
IN Construction Cleanup, Contract Cleaning, Facility Management, Health Care, Manufacturing

Construction Cleanup: How Trained Crews Save Time, Money

After months of remodeling, a multi-million dollar project is wrapping up but you didn’t hire pros to handle your construction cleanup. The result: Delays in reopening and unexpected costs.

That situation is easy to prevent if you hire a properly trained team. Here’s a secret: Many cleaning companies use temporary help for construction cleanups. The reason is that they need a lot of people for the job but don’t have them on staff. The result, often, is untrained people working with minimal experience.

So, make sure you look for these three things when you hire a company to handle your construction cleanup:

1. Project Management is a Must For Construction Cleanup

The best organizations have a dedicated project manager who oversees the cleaning team. This person understands construction timelines and attends contractor meetings to ensure cleaning is done at the proper time.

For instance, a project manager well versed in the process won’t have sinks cleaned until inspectors come through and run the water. Or, nothing will be dusted and vacuumed until the HVAC is commissioned. This may sound obvious, but trust us, it’s often overlooked.

2. Professional Cleaners with an Eye for Detail

Trained crews know where to look and how to clean effectively. From door and window troughs caked with saw dust to the back corners of inside drawers, professional teams won’t miss these spots.

All of our crews, for instance, clean millions of square feet each day. So, when they’re on a construction cleanup, they know it’s second nature. That level of perfectionism should be an expectation – not a luxury – for you and your team.

Without a project manager and properly trained, professional cleaners, construction cleanup can quickly become a headache, knocking the final steps of your project off-track and costing you money.

Want more information? Check out Post-construction Cleanup: 4 Reasons Temp Help is Risky, Inefficient
February 24, 2021 BY
IN Contract Cleaning, Facility Management, Floor Care, Health Care, Manufacturing, Office Cleaning

Extract the Most from Your Carpet Extraction

Weird odors. Faded colors. Mystery stains. Sound familiar? If so, you’re probably not getting the most out of your carpet extraction.

Now, more than ever, dirty carpets send the wrong message. Employees and visitors are on high-alert looking for clues your building is dirty, as they hunt for any reason to believe you’re not doing your best to keep them safe and healthy.

So, let’s break down how you can not only get incredibly clean carpets, but also kill some germs in the process.

Vacuum with Vigor

Professional carpet extraction comes down to the details. Make sure you thoroughly vacuum all carpet and then prevent people from walking on it before you can complete the extraction.

Most vacuums use HEPA filters but make sure your machines are equipped with them. This helps capture allergens and other small particles in the carpet.

Plenty of great vacuums are on the market, which you certainly know. Our teams generally use upright and backpack ProTeam models, depending on the job.

The Power of Pretreating

Before our crews get the extractor out, we always pretreat carpets to loosen stains. While it’s an extra step this will actually improve your team’s efficiency and the extraction’s effectiveness.

Our go-to option is Triple S’s Pretreat Plus. It’s safe on all carpets and honestly, we’ve met few stains it can’t break loose. It’s also great for spot cleaning between extractions. To apply the pretreatment, use a handheld pump sprayer.

Carpet Extraction

Our teams prefer Windsor’s walk-behind Clipper Extractor. It’s fast and effective and with the help of a fan will have carpets dry and ready for use when employees return the next morning.

There aren’t any big secrets here other than to make sure your team is well trained on how to use the equipment. Otherwise, you’ll get an inconsistent clean and the job may take longer than planned – neither of which you can afford.

Also, consider a deodorizer/disinfectant to kill microbes in the carpet and help eliminate odors. It works well with an extractor and will leave your carpets looking and smelling that much better. Our favorite choice is Triple S’s cleaner, deodorizer and disinfectant.

Time it Right

For high-traffic areas, we recommend a quarterly extraction. An annual carpet extraction is ideal for most other parts of a facility.

Generally, we find you get the most out of your extraction if you do it in early spring, once people have stopped trekking snow and salt into your buildings. Of course, it varies for everyone. For instance, schools prefer to handle carpet extraction in the summer when students are gone.

Still have questions? Need help with your extraction? Send us a note or call any time.

About the Author

Jeremy Angle leads our team in Southeast Wisconsin. As general manager of our Milwaukee branch, he works with some of our largest clients to ensure they have the right cleaning program in place. 

Whether the groundhog sees his shadow tomorrow or not, spring will be here before we know it. Get your facility ready with this spring cleaning checklist.
February 24, 2021 BY
IN Contract Cleaning, Disinfection, Facility Management, Floor Care, Health Care, Manufacturing, Office Cleaning

Facility Spring Cleaning: Your Checklist

Whether the groundhog sees his shadow tomorrow or not, spring will be here before we know it. Get your facility ready with this spring cleaning checklist.

Yes, Midwestern winters do end (despite how we all may feel sometimes). And, with that comes the need to do some facility spring cleaning.

To make it simple, we’ve put together a list you and your team as you prepare your buildings for warmer months ahead. Of course, this is on top of your regular cleaning and disinfecting program. With that said, we won’t get into all the daily needs we talk about so often. 

The Facility Manager’s Spring Cleaning Checklist

Fresh Floors for the Win
Restroom Revival
Save your Soft Surfaces
  • Upholstery + partition disinfection 
    Chair extraction and disinfection 
  • Curtain and drape disinfection 
Next-level Cleaning + Disinfection
  • Multi-surface disinfection with electrostatic sprayers
  • Electronic (computers, etc.) cleaning and disinfection 
  • Ceiling and exposed duct cleaning 
  • Interior + exterior window cleaning 
  • Exterior pressure washing (sidewalks, building surfaces, etc.) 

Take these steps and your employees and visitors are going to see – and feel – the difference when they’re in your facilities. With attention to cleanliness at an all-time high, you can improve perception and reassure folks you’re taking every step possible to keep them safe. 

Want more information on our specialty services? Call or send us a note any time. 
February 18, 2021 BY
IN Contract Cleaning, Education, Floor Care, Health Care, Manufacturing, Office Cleaning

Stripping and Waxing Floors: 5 Steps to Make Sure Your Floors Last

When was the last time you remember stripping and waxing floors in your facility? Well, depending on your industry it may have been anywhere from a few months to a few years.

It’s an important part of your cleaning program that not only preserves your floors but improves employee and customer perception.

Dirty, peeling floors give an immediate impression that the rest of your facility is dirty. In today’s world that’s unacceptable. Stripping and waxing your floors is a straightforward way to quickly enhance the look and feel of your entire facility, while also saving money in the long run (no one likes replacing floors, right?).

And here’s the good news, if you follow the steps below you can get large facilities done in a single night. That means no interruption to your employees and customers.

Our 5-step approach to stripping and waxing floors  

1. Strip it down.

First, we apply a commercial-grade floor stripper and let it do its work. This usually takes anywhere from 15 minutes to 1 hour.

2. Scrub it off.

Once the floor stripper has gone to work, we use an aggressive scrubbing pad to loosen all the material. Depending on how long it’s been from the last time the floor was stripped, you may have to repeat this 1-3 times. Next, we suck all that up with a wet vac.

3. Clean the base.

Once all the finish and stripper is off, we clean the original surface and dry it completely. Don’t skip this step! It’s critical to ensure the floor is ready for the finish.

4. Apply the floor finish.

We generally put on four layers of floor finish. If it’s a high-traffic area we often apply 5-6 layers. The finish is dry in about 30 minutes and ready for foot traffic.

5. Get buff.

Using a wet buff, we shine the floor, giving it that “like new” look and feel.

For commercial office buildings we generally recommend you do this at least once a year. Anything more probably is excessive. Manufacturers? You likely need to consider stripping and waxing floors quarterly. If you’re in manufacturing, check out these tips to keep factory floors clean and safe.

Curious if your floors need some serious attention? Send us a note. We’re happy to take a look.

About the Author

Jeremy Angle leads our team in Southeast Wisconsin. As general manager of our Milwaukee branch, he works with some of our largest clients to ensure they have the right cleaning program in place. 

Great service starts locally. Find a KleenMark office near you!

Our Locations

“It’s all about being a partner. KleenMark doesn’t work for me; they’re my partner.  We work together so that at the end of the day we‘re both successful.” 

– Steve Strzok, Facilities and Global Engineering Services Manager, Rockwell Automation

Get cleaning tips that won't dirty your inbox.

Product has been added to your cart