When hiring a healthcare cleaning service, cleaning and disinfection standards are your biggest priority. However, there are other important factors that you will want to keep in mind. One critical area will be security. No matter how clean and how hygienic a cleaning vendor’s work may be, you don’t want them cleaning your facility if they’re a security risk for your practice.
Whether you’re operating a major medical center, a boutique surgical clinic, or a family practice office, security is of utmost importance for healthcare facilities. If you’re in the process of hiring a healthcare cleaning service, it’s important that you understand your security vulnerabilities. You’ll also need to know what to look for in a secure cleaning service.
Security & Healthcare Cleaning Service Practices
In a healthcare facility, there’s not only a higher risk of security breaches but also higher stakes when these breaches occur. Medical offices, hospitals, and pharmacies are often targeted for physical theft, due to the presence of controlled substances in these facilities. Patient data, while less likely to be targeted for theft, is another important security concern, given the sensitivity of patients’ confidential information.
The importance of security in medical facilities can be seen in the staffing practices and security infrastructure found in these facilities. It is extremely rare that healthcare facilities will hire new employees without a detailed background check. Meanwhile, these facilities often use access control, video surveillance, and cybersecurity systems to prevent physical theft and data breaches.
Yet, despite taking these steps, some medical facilities fail to hold their healthcare cleaning service to the same standards. Cleaning contractors are given access — often unsupervised — to areas that contain controlled substances or patient records. If steps aren’t taken to screen cleaning contractors and enforce security protocols, your facility could be at serious risk.
So how can you make sure that your healthcare cleaning service is doing their part to keep your facility secure? Here are a few of the must-have qualities that you should expect when hiring a cleaning service for your healthcare facility:
- Background checks for cleaning staff
- Certified, bonded, and insured cleaning contractors
- Highly visible, easy-to-identify uniforms
- Training in security best practices for medical facilities
- Customized cleaning plans, including site-specific security protocols
Secure cleaning is just one of the reasons why so many medical facilities rely on healthcare cleaning services from JAN-PRO®. In addition to medical facilities, we also work in banks, financial offices, government facilities, and boutique retail centers, so we know what it takes to clean securely.
Thanks to our MedMetrix® cleaning process, we also know how to keep medical facilities as clean and hygienic as possible. Designed to be fully compliant with CDC, AORN, Joint Commission, and OSHA standards, MedMetrix® includes best practices for cleaning and disinfecting healthcare facilities. This includes specialized areas unique to medical centers, including waiting areas, patient rooms, surgical suites, terminal patient areas, and dental operatories.
Learn more about our healthcare cleaning services and request a free consultation with your local JAN-PRO office by calling us today at 866-355-1064.