Cross-contamination is a very serious risk in medical settings, whether it’s in a hospital, general practice, nursing home or dentist surgery. The combination of high bacteria levels, large volumes of people coming and going and patients being more vulnerable means that keeping these spaces clean and free from germs is imperative.
When working in the medical sector, it’s vital that you’re armed with high quality antibacterial wipes that have the power to kill viruses and bacteria. However, it’s also key that each staff member has the knowledge on how to correctly use medical wipes for maximum safety.
To help you ensure a high level of cleanliness in any healthcare setting, we’ve shared our top tips on how to use antibacterial medical wipes…
1. Ensure different areas are cleaned regularly
Having a schedule or routine in place for keeping certain areas cleaned frequently is the first step to achieving healthcare hygiene excellence. Areas such as the patient bed, bathrooms and high traffic surfaces, such as door handles and handrails, are crucial for keeping on top of after each use to reduce the risk of contamination. If a medical wipe is used to clean one of these areas, the risk of cross infection is instantly changed from high to low, allowing you to keep everyone coming into the area protected.
2. Wash your hands before use
It may seem obvious but when working in a medical setting, it’s important to always wash your hands thoroughly before using our medical wipes and in between cleaning different areas. Starting with clean hands helps to ensure the best results from our medical wipes and limit the risk of cross contamination. Similarly, if you notice that the next available wipe in the pack is visibly dirty before use, remove and discard it.
3. Use the S cleaning technique when wiping down surfaces
For large surface areas, it can be tempting to use all kinds of different motions to ensure the area is being cleaned effectively, from repetitive circular movements to rigorous back and forth patterns.
Although our antibacterial wipes have been carefully designed to kill bacteria and viruses, they need to be applied in a way that ensures optimum results. To achieve this, we recommend using the ‘S’ technique when cleaning every surface – in the same way as you would mow a lawn – and never go over the same spot twice unless it is with a separate wipe.
4. Allow enough time for the medical wipes to work
Once you’ve wiped down a surface, it’s important that the disinfectant solution from the wipe has had enough time to kill all germs before evaporating. Our medical wipes have been rigorously tested with a contact time of 30 seconds for killing Noravirus, Influenza A, Coronavirus and more. However, factors like heat, air conditioning, wind, and light can make surfaces dry faster, so if the surface dries before the contact time is completed, make sure you go over it again with another wipe.
5. Make sure you only use each medical wipe once
It can be tempting to reuse the same wipe in an attempt to avoid waste, however, it’s important that you stick to a single use basis for medical wipes to avoid cross-contaminating different areas. All medical wipes should only be used once, immediately after removing from the packaging to ensure full use of the disinfectant solution.
6. Store your medical wipes safely
Once your cleaning is complete, it’s important to store your medical wipes in a cool, dry place and away from sunlight to keep them from being damaged. The packaging of our medical wipes contain a plastic sealable lid so they stay moist, effective and protected from contamination.
If you’re interested in our suite of products for the medical sector, please click below or get in touch to arrange free samples to be delivered to your workplace.
