Steps to be Followed to Prevent Covid-19 Contamination in Hospitals

When it comes to reopening your hotel after the long haul due to the Covid-19 outbreak, there is no room for any error. When it comes to facility management, planning about adjusting to the new normal might seem a daunting task. A lot will be changing after businesses and facilities reopen to welcome guests, employees and residents. For the hospitality industry, the challenge will be at a different level altogether.

Welcoming guests after the restrictions ease out

As you can guess, a lot of burden will be on the housekeeping team. Disinfecting the rooms, common areas and eventually the entire property is the first step towards stopping the virus from spreading. For the safety of everyone concerned, your staff needs to protect each other and your guests. As the virus will not go away till a cure is discovered, there are high chances that you will have to welcome guests who are carriers of the disease or are already infected or might be required to be quarantined for fourteen days. This requires you to take some special care without compromising the safety and comfort of your guests.

·       As a facility manager, you need to ensure that a suspected guest is completely isolated in a room with a telephone, separate bathroom, biological waste container, thermometer, protective materials, food and water till the health professionals arrive. This room should have natural ventilation without any carpets or curtains as these are difficult to disinfect.

·       If you are having guests who needs to be quarantined soon, you need to notify your room service team immediately. They are required to change the protective equipment in each infected room.

·       If you are required to take several guests in quarantine, the communication of these of these guests with the room service or housekeeping team should be with the help of an intercom. If possible, ensure that these guests do not have to leave the facility for medication.

·       All rooms that have the suspected guests needs to be equipped with an alarm system that the guests can activate in case there is an emergency.

·       You need to use two garbage bags to carry the waste from these rooms.

Preparing the housekeeping team

Your housekeeping team in the facility is the one that is most prone to the virus. To avoid contamination, you would need them to adopt new cleaning measures:

·       Create a checklist of the housekeeping tasks that are to be followed at each cleaning, especially after the guests have checked out.

·       Train people who are responsible for doing the bedding and the rooms to properly wear personal protective equipment like masks, gloves, aprons, eye protection gear, as they are always are at a greater risk.

·       Plan out new work routines and split your teams, one team cleans the bed and towels and after a span of two to four hours, another team goes and changes it.

·       Explain to the housekeeping team how to properly disinfect surfaces with the help of chlorine, bleach or disinfectant containing 70 percent alcohol. Alternatively, in order to avoid damaging sensitive materials, you can instruct them to use viricidal detergents.

·       An exclusive washing machine should be kept for professionals dedicated to cleaning the rooms. The clothes are required to be washed at least at 60 degrees for at least 30 minutes. If the fabric is not able to withstand this temperature, a second cycle should be repeated with the appropriate disinfectant.

·       Room cleaning must also include careful disinfection of every control and switch. If possible, it would be great if you could allow your guests to control the TV and AC with their mobile phones.

·       All the walls, of the rooms and common areas need to be cleaned at arm’s length.

·       The common areas having the highest passages like the reception areas, need to be cleaned several times in a day. ATM terminals are required to be disinfected with the help of a wipe after every use. You must not put alcohol directly on the terminal as it has chances of damaging the TPA.

·       The dishes are required to be taken to the machine at least at 60 degrees.

·       You must not use the vacuum cleaner as it can turn the virus droplets into aerosols. The cleaning needs to be damp always and with the help of water vacuum cleaners.

Social distancing is one the best measures to stop the spread of the virus. As a facility manager of a hospital, a lot depends on how quickly you respond. There will be many instances when you might require to access a facility floor plan or know the location of an equipment, you can access all the critical building information at the tap of a button on your mobile with the help of a facility management app. This will make your entire initiative of reopening your property during or after Covid-19 a lot easier.

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Created on Jun 2nd 2020 06:12. Viewed 440 times.

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