Medical Office Cleaning

Medical Office Cleaning Requires Confidentiality

Medical office cleaning has a special set of needs. Both patient confidentiality and safety are of concern to medical staff, who must deal with serious regulatory requirements on a daily basis. Failure to meet those requirements could destroy a practice, so it’s important the process of selecting a cleaning service be a thorough one.

The right cleaning service will not only fully understand the special requirements of any medical office, it will specialize in keeping patients safe. A trustworthy, reliable cleaning service can keep a medical office clean without compromising its regulatory compliance.

Compliance and Privacy

Medical offices are under strict requirements set forth by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which governs the release of patient data. While regulations stipulate that employees should lock up all records when not in use and keep screen visibility at a minimum, no office is immune from the occasional slip-up.

Because medical office cleaning crews are on hand to empty wastebaskets and keep areas clean, they will inevitably stumble upon the occasional patient record. For this reason, it’s crucial that a medical office choose a service that conducts thorough background checks on each employee.

Sterile and Safe

While a business office certainly desires a clean environment, a medical office demands it. A cleaning service’s crew will specialize in sanitizing surfaces in order to help an office uphold its goals for infection prevention. Some cleaning services specialize solely in cleaning medical offices, while others have decided to dedicate one area of their business to treating these businesses. Either is a viable solution, as long as a medical office works to ensure the company is experienced and skilled at healthcare-related cleaning.

The chosen cleaning service should also have different procedures for cleaning exam rooms, and the procedures will also differ depending on the type of practice. Even the waiting area and reception desk will require a greater attention to detail than a general business office, however, since contagious patients often spend time in those areas.

A medical office cleaning service will use hospital-grade cleaning supplies, following proper procedures for infection prevention. Areas will not only be cleaned but sanitized, as well, with special procedures for disposing of hazardous waste. Because medical offices are open to the public during the daytime, much of this work will be completed after hours, when no personnel are around, so it’s also important that the cleaning service use discretion if a worker ever accidentally comes into contact with sensitive patient data.