HCAHPS scores are a way for patients to provide feedback to healthcare facilities. HCAHPS is an acronym for Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems. There are several categories that influence the overall score: the patients’ perception of the attractiveness of the facility, the cleanliness of the area, and the interaction between staff and patient. Truly, it is the perceived overall friendliness, cleanliness, safety, and experience of the patient that determines HCAHPS scores. While staff can be trained to improve their interactions with patients, healthcare facility maintenance cleaning still plays a major role in the patient experience.
Perceptions of Cleanliness are Crucial
It’s important to consider patient perception of cleanliness, not just the fact that you know your staff has cleaned recently. This may mean the patient witnesses the cleaning themselves or they were informed of the cleaning processes that occurred while they were out of the room. Patients view cleanliness in general as an indication of health and safety. If they do not feel that a space is cleaned to their standards, they will assume they’re at a greater risk for contracting a health-care associated infection (HAI) during their stay and will not recommend the health care facility or hospital to others. With this in mind, the HCAHPS patient survey will directly reflect this perception, as how safe or clean a patient perceives a space to be will influence their answers to the survey. By improving the cleanliness of your facility, you will improve its overall impression on your patients and therefore your HCAHPS scores.
Professionalism of Your Cleaning Staff Matters
We previously mentioned that assuring your patients of the sanitization and safety of your facility can improve patient perception. When you hire a professional healthcare facility cleaning staff to keep the highest standards of cleanliness, your patients will see that you’re committed to maintaining a safe facility. A respectful and dedicated healthcare janitorial team will show your patients that you care equally about keeping your in-house staff focused on patient care while providing a clean and sanitary healthcare environment at all times. When a patient sees how you’ve invested in the cleanliness of your facility, they will feel safer and give you better scores.
We’re Trained for This
ServiceMaster Elite Cleaning Services offers healthcare facilities and hospitals in the Southern Louisiana area the best in health and safety cleaning practices including infections control and prevention, laundry and sharps precautions, exposure control plans, principles of microbiology, and personal protective equipment. Our cleaning standards are developed in recognition of the best cleaning practices as published by the AORN, OSHA, CDC, HIPPA, AAAHC, and The Joint Commission. We’re committed to serving medical facilities with the highest standard of clean you can find anywhere to ensure the safety of the community. Call us today at (800) 932-9940 for a consultation or contact us online.
