Volume 100 - Issue 7
Accurate Data Is More Than Nice to Have... It's a Must
To find ways to do more with less while fighting the infection and allergy perils, managers need to question and challenge their vendors as they have never before done.
Do not accept sales rhetoric when you are looking for real answers. If you feel violated, let it be known and then ask for substantiated facts. You are the customer, It is your money, and your organization has liability exposure.
Here are two cases in point:
1. Some vendors will sell you a disinfectant-detergent under the pretext of killing all germs and removing all soil in a single application. Yet, the EPA requires that a product container label state that soil must be removed prior to the application of the disinfectant solution.
Beyond the label, the vendor needs to tell you that even when the solution is applied to a "pre-cleaned" surface, the first contact of soil will contaminate the disinfectant barrier and render the area of contact unprotected. If you wish to learn more, click here.
2. Today, a hand sanitizer dispenser or bottle may be found most anywhere. Advertising and product promotion wants us to believe that rubbing the "juice" into our hands performs a continuous "germ killing" miracle. Well, that is not so.
Here is one of a few worrisome statements from a sanitizer manufacturer: "(Our Product) is a hand sanitizer not a hand cleaner. We suggest that you use (Our Product) when your hands are not visibly soiled. When your hands are visibly soiled we suggest that you use soap and water."
What is the difference between visible and invisible soil? Someone else's body fluids may be invisible, but they still contain germs. How can a caregiver or anyone make safe sense out of this kind of talk? Makers of disinfectant or sanitizers do not know how much soil will be on someone's hands or surfaces to ensure, as some tout, 99.9% germ kill?
When the sanitizer manufacturer recommends that soiled hands be washed before using their product, they are in effect saying that their product does not work on soiled hands. And, if someone's hands were "clean", free of soil, what is the point of using the sanitizer. As soon as the sanitizer comes in contact with soil, it will be contaminated and rendered ineffective. So, going by the sanitizer maker's guidelines, the surface or hands will need to be washed again with soap and water.
Hospitals, nursing homes, or doctors' offices do not have soil police to determine if invisible and/or visible soil was transferred to a caregiver while attending to a patient. Rubbing hands with a sanitizer is not guaranteed "germ insurance".
If there are germs present, there is soil hosting the germs. To have blind faith in a busy caregiver's ability to determine if any invisible soil was penetrated by the antisepsis solution is dangerous, potentially lethal, and ludicrous.
It is time to start questioning this insanity. If you are responsible, at any management level, for the cleanliness and fitness of a facility, do not view disinfectant or antisepsis products as "holy water" for killing germs without having to first remove all soil. I urge everyone to read container labels, and then question vendors and product manufacturers on matters that do not make sense.
Bottom Line: Keeping your facilities and/or hands really clean will do more to reducing health care costs and lost time than all the improperly used disinfectants, sanitizers, etc. in the world.
Now, lets move our focus to cutting costs.
Our customers are able to save, and continue to save, up to 50% or more on chemicals and labor. Their savings came because they learned correct information before they "opened the boxes" from us. We are committed to educating and training before selling only proven high-performance products.
Compare what customers say about Gabriel to what you would say about your vendor(s).
Saving money is a necessity, but interacting with an empowered and proud custodian is priceless.
Thank you for allowing me into your day.
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p.s. Our Custodian Dispatch e-mails focus on improving staff performance, morale, job pride, and facility health and safety. My goal is to help readers make great things happen and still slash labor and material costs.
If you wish to no longer receive our Custodian Dispatch e-mails, please click here or below.
Again, thank you for the courtesy of allowing me this visit.
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