Think your surfaces are clean? Think again! Core Hygiene can show your team how to clean even better, as we did with one client in the aged care industry.
Our Auckland-based client operates retirement villages throughout the North Island. A happy customer for many years, they rely on us to provide washroom services and consumables replenishment at all their locations, including feminine hygiene bins, air fresheners, hand towels, soap, and hand sanitiser.
Because of our longstanding relationship, the organisation agreed that a hygiene audit to identify possible areas for improvement was a good idea. At one of their Auckland locations, service technician Steve Downs performed ATP tests on high-touch surfaces including emergency call buttons, handrails, and door handles to gauge current bacterial counts and establish a benchmark.
Surprisingly dirty surfaces
Their daily in-house cleaning staff hadn’t been cleaning the call buttons, as they didn’t want to summon staff unnecessarily. “We got an initial protein reading of 1,400 parts per million on a button surface, which is very high,” says Steve. “They were surprised but were open to an audit as well as different ways of cleaning.”
What is considered an acceptable bacterial count? According to Steve, this could be up to 100 ppm in a non-kitchen environment but should be below 50 ppm wherever food is being prepared or processed.
Steve then turned his attention to sanitising high touchpoints throughout the facility’s 10 buildings, using IsoShield - a potent surface sanitiser that kills 99.99 percent of germs, viruses, bacteria, and mould on contact. When dry, IsoShield bonds to the applied surface to create a protective barrier that continues to kill germs for days afterward – beneficial in an aged care environment, where residents with fragile immunity are vulnerable to secondary infections.
A little goes a long way
Just a light touch with our alcohol-based formula was all that was needed to properly sanitise call buttons – without calling anyone! Three weeks after leaving the team well-stocked with IsoShield and Hygen microfibre cloths, Steve returned for another round of ATP testing, this time with much improved results. Since rolling out the new cleaning protocol to its other locations, our client feels confident that they are taking every measure to safeguard the wellbeing of their residents and prevent the spread of illness-causing germs.