What is infection control cleaning?
Infection control cleaning is cleaning carried out to interrupt transmission — through segregation of equipment, correct products and contact times, and increased frequency on touchpoints.
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<a href="https://cleanoptix.co.uk/glossary/infection-control">What is infection control cleaning?</a> — diagram by
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</figure>Contact time is the element most often lost. A disinfectant needs to remain wet on a surface for a stated period, and wiping it dry immediately leaves a clean surface that has not been disinfected.
Outbreak cleaning differs from routine cleaning in product, method and frequency, and the trigger to switch between them needs to be defined rather than decided on the day.
It applies well beyond healthcare: schools, care settings, gyms and food premises all have periods where the routine is not enough.
In practice
A care setting during a norovirus outbreak.
The cleaning team is asked to increase frequency, and does. The method does not change: the same cloths, the same order of rooms, the same equipment moving between them.
During an outbreak the thing that matters is not doing more of the usual clean but changing what moves between spaces and in what order.
Increasing frequency without changing method can move an outbreak around a building faster.
What goes wrong in practice
- Disinfectant applied and immediately wiped off.
- No defined trigger for moving to outbreak arrangements.
- Equipment segregation relaxed during a period of pressure.