ed as your frontline staff on mandatory infection prevention meas-
ures, and why your facility's cleaning protocols are so important to
follow. We got permission from the owner of the company that ter-
minally cleans our ORs to do just that.
At the end of the day and after terminal cleaning is complete, have a
staff member or representative from the outside cleaning firm you
work with conduct a final walkthrough of the ORs to make sure the
areas have been properly cleaned and have them submit a daily
report. If all the ORs are clean in our hospital, the staff member who
completed the inspection puts a checkmark on the box for each
room. If something was missed, they'll make a note on the report
sheet — suture on floor or floor unmopped — to help us identify and
address areas of needed improvement.
Making the rounds
Validate your staff's work after training them on new cleaning proto-
cols or reinforcing the importance of established methods.
Approach staff members for impromptu spot checks of their clean-
ing practices. Ask them which cleaning products they're using on
the floors, walls and flat surfaces. Watch how they clean an OR,
making sure they start at the room's perimeter and work toward the
table. Perform these real-time, random audits every 2 weeks, or at
least monthly, to make sure team members are hitting every square
inch of your facility.
OSM
O C T O B E R 2 0 1 9 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y. N E T • 6 3
Ms. Hulin (rehulin@lgh.org) is the OR clinical nurse manager and Ms.
Edney-Poole (jsedneypoole@lgh.org) is a clinical nurse manager at
Lafayette General Surgical Hospital in Lafayette, La.
