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The latest innovations for care home cleaning

Friday, 7 September 2018

Gill Ireson, head of sales at Robert Scott, discusses new advances for care home cleaning and hygiene to ensure your regime is the most effective it can be for both staff and residents. We know that distributors are often asked to advise customers on the most suitable cleaning products and practices to clean in what is a unique set of challenges within the care home sector. Most often they’re asked questions such as how customers can modernise their cleaning regimes to make systems more cost and time efficient, or how they can more effectively reduce the risk of cross-contamination.

Cleaning for the care home sector
There are many important issues faced by an industry with a huge responsibility for looking after our nation’s elderly population. Due to infection control policy, cleaning of care homes with the use of traditional mops and cloths means a clean mop and fresh water must be used in every room to avoid cross-contamination. This is having a detrimental effect on businesses where budgets are already under scrutiny as it results in increased water consumption and utility costs, as well as staff time and chemical use, making it both economically and environmentally ineffective.

It’s our role as a manufacturer and supplier to apply our cleaning know-how to develop product solutions that deliver better cleaning practices, more hygienic spaces, lower rates of contamination and an overall improved environment – just how a care home should be.

Changes in cleaning regimes
One of the major changes that we would encourage any care home to consider when reviewing their cleaning regime is switching to a microfibre system. Microfibre has a completely different structure to classic woven cloths and mops. They are made from split synthetic fibres, which are much finer than other textiles and engineered to create a very large surface area per fibre, as well as being naturally statically charged so that they have a strong suction effect.

Trials carried out have indicated that microfibre woven cloths consistently outperform traditional cloths in terms of their ability to remove dirt, grease and bacteria and while microfibre doesn’t kill bacteria, it effectively lifts and removes 99.9 per cent of anything that is on a surface. Microfibre also requires less water and chemical product, making it both cost-effective and beneficial to the environment. The material is easy to clean, quick to dry and can be washed many times over.

For floorcare, the Stream Magnetic Mop System is ideal for care home cleaning. It’s a double-sided microfibre flat mop with integral jet spray, which means faster spot cleaning over twice the floor area with one mop. The pads are microfibre and can be dosed with water and cleaning product as you clean, so there’s no need for buckets. Floors are cleaned faster and dry quicker, making the Stream system ideal for high traffic areas where a rapid response is needed. The magnetic mop head enables easy changing of the pads with no need for bending or touching soiled pads.

For surfaces, we have developed a wide range of microfibre cloths that are suitable for all areas of the care home, from bathrooms and kitchens to common areas. Robert Scott has also applied the national colour coding system for cleaning materials, which has been recommended by the NHS as an approach the care home sector should implement.

Some of our latest surface cleaning innovations include the Handy Microfibre Mitt – a double-sided cleaning mitt with the power of microfibre technology making it very effective at removing dirt and dust; the Duop Cleaning Tool can be used on any surface, high or low level, thanks to its unique, ergonomic socket and ball mechanism which pivots 360° to make cleaning easy and strain-free for the user.

How to make a difference?
It’s important to remember that reviewing your cleaning regime regularly with staff can help highlight areas where improvements can be made. Even small changes can have a dramatic impact, not only on the home’s hygiene and Infection Control Audit results but also on the business’ bottom line and overall staff morale.

To order your copy of the new Care Home Range mini-catalogue please contact us, call on 01457 819400 or email info@robert-scott.co.uk.