Hospital Hygiene: Ensuring the Highest Standards of Cleanliness

Minimizing risks, building trust – hospital hygiene

Imagine visiting a medical facility – whether as a patient or a relative – and suddenly an infection becomes an additional burden. This is precisely the risk that arises when hygiene guidelines are not consistently implemented in hospitals. Nosocomial infections, i.e. those acquired during a hospital stay, affect around 6% of patients in European hospitals – that's about 4.5 million cases a year.

One particularly problematic pathogen is MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), which is resistant to many antibiotics. Depending on the country, infection rates range from 2.3 % to 10.8 %. Differences in hospital hygiene, infection control and antibiotic use play an important role here.

Where do the dangers lurk?

• Antibiotic resistance: The increase in resistant pathogens such as MRSA makes infections difficult to treat – this is a significant challenge.
• Contaminated food: Poor hospital hygiene in the kitchens can pose a risk to weakened patients through contaminated food.
• Smear infections: Pathogens are often transmitted through poor hand hygiene or contaminated objects, especially when caring for high-risk patients.

Hospitals have a legal and ethical responsibility to provide a hygienic and safe environment for patients, staff and visitors. To ensure this, hospitals and clinics follow clearly defined hygiene guidelines. These are often based on international standards such as the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO) or European norms. The challenges of cleaning a hospital are many and varied. It is therefore worth taking a look at the different areas and their specific requirements.

Every room counts – requirements and challenges in hospital hygiene

How can the highest hygiene standards be maintained in a hospital, from the highly sensitive operating room to the heavily frequented entrance area? The requirements are complex – for management as well as for the staff who are confronted with the challenges every day. The following overview shows which cleaning measures are necessary in the individual areas and departments and how demanding hospital hygiene actually is.

Clean rooms (operating room, sterile center)

• Maximum sterility, daily disinfection, special air filtration
• High personnel and equipment requirements, cost-intensive processes
• Strict protocols, sterile clothing, regular air quality monitoring

Unclean areas

• Removal of contamination, clear separation of clean and unclean areas
• Risk of injury from hazardous substances, costly disposal
• Use of protective clothing, secure waste containers, clear process instructions

Room

• Disinfection of contact surfaces, regular linen changes
• High frequency, changing requirements due to different clinical pictures
• Creation of flexible cleaning plans, targeted disinfection after patient change

Intensive care unit

• Frequent cleaning, measures against cross-contamination
• Sensitive patients, strict adherence to hygiene guidelines
• Regular staff training, seamless documentation of cleaning processes

OR

• Cleaning before, during and after surgery, sterile equipment and surfaces
• Time pressure, complex cleaning protocols
• Use of special cleaning and care products, air filtration, precise time planning

Entrance area

• Removal of dirt, surface and floor cleaning
• High frequency of use, dirt from shoes
• Daily, trouble-free cleaning, increased frequency during flu season

Sanitary areas

• Cleaning and disinfection of toilets, washbasins and floors, refilling of hygiene products
• High use, rapid material consumption
• Targeted use of cleaning agents, regular follow-up and refilling of hygiene products

Kitchen and cafeteria

• Cleaning of work surfaces, equipment and utensils, adherence to the HACCP concept
• High hygiene standards
• Careful cleaning according to fixed plans, clear separation of areas

Administration

• Cleaning of work surfaces and floors, less strict requirements than in medical areas
• Large areas, flexible use
• Efficient planning of cleaning times, simple routines, use of upholstery and carpet cleaners

In a hospital, the processes are as diverse as the areas themselves, and not all details can be fully captured in an overview like this. However, the focus is always on: efficient and fast cleaning while maintaining high quality and with as little disruption as possible in all departments – a major task, especially in extensive hospital complexes with several wards and hundreds of rooms. In this case, well-thought-out resource planning is a key management task. Only in this way can staff, time and consumables be used in an economically optimal way. Have you ever wondered how all this is implemented and what modern approaches are now available?

Modern technologies – efficiency and sustainability in hospital cleaning

Cleaning in hospitals is a demanding task: large areas, strict hygiene requirements and time-critical processes. Modern cleaning machines help by taking over routine tasks and relieving staff. This saves time and resources, especially for recurring activities such as floor cleaning or disinfecting large areas.

A focus on innovations:

• Industrial cleaning robots: These high-tech helpers are programmable, work independently, clean systematically and navigate safely through different environments such as corridors, patient rooms and other areas. The cleaning robots can be controlled via an app and charge themselves independently, thus enabling trouble-free 24/7 operation.
• Autonomous vacuum robots: These industrial vacuum robots work thoroughly and autonomously, and show their strengths particularly in high-traffic areas, on both hard floors and carpets. A whole fleet of several hundred devices can be controlled centrally via an app dashboard – automatic recharging and emptying minimizes the time and maintenance required and further increases efficiency.
• Modern scrubber-driers: Thanks to intuitive operation and automated dosing of cleaning agents, scrubber-driers achieve optimal results on all types of hard floors, regardless of the experience of the cleaning staff. Scrubbing and drying are done in a single operation – for thorough cleaning that meets the high standards of hospital hygiene.

The introduction of these technologies is not only a response to the increasing shortage of labor in the healthcare sector, but also a strategic step towards improving patient safety and general hospital hygiene. By using these automated solutions, medical facilities can make their cleaning processes more efficient while also reducing the workload on cleaning staff. This leads to higher employee satisfaction and, ultimately, to better patient care.

Smart cleaning significantly increases cleaning quality and promotes sustainability – a successful combination of efficiency and environmental awareness that optimally supports hospital operations. Automation is therefore a central component of modern healthcare, which is prepared for the requirements of today and tomorrow.

Manual cleaning – indispensable for precise cleanliness and hospital hygiene

Where machines are used primarily to clean large areas efficiently, it is the cleaning staff who ensure with precision and specialized knowledge that even the smallest details remain hygienically flawless. The centerpiece and always at hand: the cleaning trolley. The exact equipment varies depending on the department and the task at hand, but some basic elements are always essential:

• Cleaning agents: Maintenance cleaners for different surfaces and types of dirt, disinfecting and hygienic cleaners, as well as special products for sensitive areas such as operating rooms, kitchens and sanitary facilities.
• Dosing equipment: Environmentally friendly cleaning agents are also being used more and more in hospital hygiene. In combination with spray and dosing bottles, overdosing is prevented, resources are saved and consistent cleaning results are ensured.
• Cloths and sponges: High-quality products such as microfiber cloths, floor cloths and sponges are color-coded to prevent cross-contamination – an important part of hospital hygiene.
• Waste systems: Special waste bags and containers that comply with the applicable guidelines are required for both general waste and the hygienic disposal of contaminated materials.
• Protective items: gloves, overshoes, disposable gowns, safety goggles and face masks minimize the risk of contamination for cleaning staff.
• Accessories and mopping systems: buckets, mops for wet and dry mopping, and squeegees are essential when it comes to cleaning floors in hospitals.

To maintain consistently impeccable hospital hygiene, it is not enough just to provide the right materials. The trolleys themselves must also be regularly cleaned and disinfected. This is because a dirty trolley can quickly become a source of germs and contamination itself – a risk that can easily be avoided. In addition to the cleanliness of the equipment, the traceability of the measures is important, for example through protocols that document what was cleaned at what time.

Hospital hygiene – a combination of prevention and control

Do you wonder how medical facilities meet the highest hygiene standards on a daily basis? Effective management, consisting of clear planning, continuous training and consistent monitoring, is the backbone of maintaining patient and staff safety and optimizing infection prevention.

From risk assessment, which identifies sources of infection at an early stage and minimizes them in a targeted manner, to interdisciplinary cooperation between all departments: hospital hygiene is a joint effort. Regular training is a central element here – it makes employees fit in dealing with current hygiene guidelines and ensures that all tasks are consistently implemented. At the same time, checklists for hospital hygiene and seamless documentary evidence create transparency and support quality management.

Did you know that up to 80% of preventable infections are transmitted through poor hand hygiene? This figure makes it clear that it is often the small, consistently implemented measures that make the biggest difference – for patients, staff and visitors alike. Hospital hygiene is a task that affects us all – and from which we all benefit.