Terminal cleaning is a critical process provided in operatory rooms that ensures a sterile environment. Effective terminal cleaning is key to prevention of Healthcare Associated Infections (HAIs) and one of the most important components of healthcare cleaning.
According to the Association for the Healthcare Environment's (AHE's) Practice Guidance for Healthcare Environmental Cleaning, terminal or discharge cleaning refers to the comprehensive, deep cleaning of a patient room at the time of discharge from a health care setting or upon termination of transmission-based precaution policies in place at a given facility. This is meant to render the area safe and ready for the next patient.
When providing terminal cleaning as part of a healthcare cleaning program; understanding the "why's" of the process are as important as understanding the "how's" or scope of work. Our training is system driven focusing on the repetition of sanitizing all surfaces within the sterile area. An emphasis on this process allows us to flawlessly maintain the sterile environment day after day, while allowing the healthcare professional to focus narrowly, on their patients.
The use of technology also allows us to validate the effectiveness of our terminal cleaning. Using an ATP monitor, we periodically swab key surfaces of the OR room to ensure that bacteria levels are acceptable following our cleaning.
