Spring Cleaning Your Medical Practice

Spring is the time of the year we all associate with cleaning frenzies. Autumnal rains and snowfall in winder have soiled everything from the window on your house to the driveway that probably has fungi growing from the pavement.

Residential spring cleaning is a real must but what about your office? Even an office worker needs to clean his or her desk but the importance of cleaning because greater if you run a medical practice. Cleanliness is half the health so it is time to it is high time you forged a plan for cleaning your medical practice this spring.

Start from the reception area

The lobby or the reception of your medical practice is the first thing patients see when they walk in so it should be spotless. Start by getting behind the counter and decluttering the space. Then take a disinfectant and wipe the whole room, with special attention to doorknobs and phone handles.

Apart from looking attractive to the eye, the reception area needs to be clear of all germs. After you’re done cleaning, place fresh flowers in vases and introduce new plans in pots. Trust us; both the patients and the staff will be delighted with this move.

Clean everything from the top

One of the most important dusting tips for your house is to dust from the top. The same goes for any building, as you literally start dusting from the ceiling. If there are any cobwebs in the corners, you can remove them using a microfiber cloth attached to a pole.

Next up are the top shelves, including cabinet tops, after which you work your way downwards, dusting and cleaning everything needed. Be sure to wipe the exterior part of air vents, because grime and mold tend to accumulate there the most.

A helping pair of hands

Depending on the size of your office, you might need a pair of helping hands to aid you with the cleaning. In fact, if it’s absolutely necessary to ask someone for help, be sure that these are your employees: receptionists, nurses, and doctors.

Instead of turning office cleaning into a hassle for them, close the practice for the day so they won’t have any other, medical work. Furthermore, you can do the spring cleaning together on a weekend, where you’ll bring them food and drinks, as well as paying them wages for the day. Spring cleaning can make for a good (and cheap) team-building activity. Plus, you’ve clean everything within a single day with extra pairs of hands.

Reorganize the space

While scrubbing and dusting away, you might notice that the layout of the office prevents efficient cleaning from taking place. There might be corners you cannot reach or shelves that are hard to access. In fact, spring cleaning can reveal that you need a new clinic interior design that would be more functional by nature.

In fact, you might want to walk in your patients’ boots and see the whole space from their perspective, from the initial "welcome" to the "goodbye" (hopefully not the ultimate parting). Soon enough, you’ll start noticing the dirt on the floor, counter that need dusting, and plants in need of watering. This will make you go extra lengths to make the whole office look more welcoming.

Improving patient flow

Once you’re done cleaning, you might want to engage in some updating. Namely, study the number of patients you had last months and try to find out from the receptions if the lobby ever gets crowded. Id this is the case, consider expanding physical sections of your medical practice by acquiring the adjacent properties.

This can be done to every room in need of expansion, from the reception to the trauma room. Also, you might want to go through the appointment schedule on your own to understand why there are too many people at times in certain rooms. Updating the scheduling will result in less overtime and less money coming out of your pocket accordingly.

Consider hiring professionals to do the cleaning

As you have seen from the previous couple of paragraphs, cleaning the office on your own on at least once a year, gives you a unique insight in day to day operations (pun not intended) of your medical practice. Perhaps you’ll realize that in the end, one person or all the staff cannot be bothered with this menial, yet important task.

Luckily, there are dozens of cleaning agencies that specialize in thoroughly cleaning all sorts of businesses, medical practices included. If they offer an acceptable fee, you should take their offer and hire them.

After all, you are probably looking to grow your business and once your practice turns into a clinic or even a mini-hospital, you will have to hire a cleaning agency. Why not establish a good rapport with cleaners early on so you get a discount in the future.

Now that we have told you pretty much everything there is to know about cleaning a typical medical practice, it’s time to get to work. Whether you ask everyone to join in or decide to clean the office bit by bit on your own, it’s entirely up to you. The end result should be the same: a pristinely clean and fully sanitized medical practice.

Liam Smith is a young and aspiring blogger and writer. He specialises in workplace relations and human resources.