Abstract:
Hospitals are venues that are used to treat patients with both contagious and regular diseases. There are various ongoing treatments happening at hospitals. This is why it is crucial to factor in the different elements concerning the environmental of hospitals. One of those elements is to maintain the hospitals environment for a convenient service level. Moreover, the hospitals should maintain its hygiene and should remain organized. The job of maintaining hygiene is the fundamental task that can be found in every building of a hospital. The main responsibility of a cleaner is to always make sure that his/her area is cleaned and ready to serve the patients. When providing a hygienic environment, one of the factors to be considered is the most appropriate method that would help to bring about a hygienic environment. Hence, the purpose of this study is to learn about the cleaning structure and the quality expects from a hospital. Multi case studies were utilized for this study and a specific sample group was selected. Six case studies were chosen for the purpose of this study. The case studies came from the following hospitals: Bangkok Medical Center, Samitivej Sukhumvit Hospital, Samitivej Srinakarin Hospital, Siriraj Piyamaharajkarun Hospital, Ramathibodi Hospital and Praram Nine Hospital. The data was collected from studying relevant documents and observing the environment. The data is then used for an analysis process in order to derive at a conclusion. From the study it was found that the cleaning process in patient service area consists of the different steps depending on each area. The fundamental and secondary steps include the followings: collecting garbage, removing blindfold for washing, cleaning the garbage bin, cleaning the balcony, cleaning walls and ceilings, cleaning office equipment, cleaning the mirrors, cleaning the bed, cleaning the furniture, cleaning electronic appliances, cleaning the toilet/sanitary ware, scrubbing the sink, sweeping and mopping the floor. These all together make up 14 tasks in total. The fundamental tasks for cleaning each patient service area includes: collecting garbage, cleaning furniture, sweeping and mopping the floor. The cleaners carried out these 4 tasks in the patient service area. Moreover, it was found that the areas that require the longest steps to clean include: inside rooms of patients with general diseases and inside rooms of patients with contagious disease. In these 2 areas, the cleaner would have to go through a total of 12 cleaning steps. As for the area with the shortest cleaning steps, that would have to be outside the blood testing room. In this area, the cleaner would have to go through a total of 5 cleaning steps. Each patient service area has different number of spots that required cleaning. The fundamental components that make up the cleaning process are as follows: 1-3 cleaners per area, equipment used for cleaning. The equipment can be divided into: essential equipment, expensive materials, disinfectant liquid that has a property of killing germs, and personal hazardous protection gears which includes doctors masks and gloves. In terms of the cleaning quality expected from the hospitals, they expect the area to be free of germs. The conclusion for this study is when it comes to cleaning patient service areas in hospitals, the first thing to consider is to destroy germ infected items as they could pose a germ infested threat in the future. After getting rid of germ infected items, the next step is to start cleaning each spot inside the area by being cautious of not spreading germs to other areas. This can be prevented by wearing personal hazardous protection gears such as doctors masks and gloves and using disinfectant liquid. The last step is to make sure that the area is cleaned according to the hospitals standard.