Cleaning a medical or dental practice: what to expect and what to ask

A medical or dental practice should expect its cleaner to work to a written routine that follows the practice's infection-control plan: the right product on each surface, rooms cleaned in a set order after the last session, touch points every visit, and a clear line around the clinical items the cleaner never touches. It should also expect the paperwork, safety data sheets for every product, insurance, WorkCover and police checks, to be available before the first visit and kept where the practice manager can find it. This guide sets out what that looks like, and what to ask a cleaner who says they can provide it.

The practice owns the plan, the cleaner works to it

Infection control is the practice's responsibility, set out in its own plan and checked at accreditation. A cleaning contractor does not replace that and should not claim to. What a good contractor does is clean the environment to the plan: the floors, benches, chairs, door handles, waiting rooms, bathrooms and staff areas, in the way the plan says, with the products the plan allows.

That distinction matters when you are comparing cleaners. Be wary of anyone who claims healthcare accreditation for their cleaning business or describes their work as clinical. Ask instead whether they will read your plan, write their routine around it and supply the data sheets. Delta's medical and dental cleaning is set up exactly that way, and we say plainly that we are cleaners, not clinicians.

What a session clean should include

After the last patient has left, the routine for a typical practice covers:

Consulting and treatment rooms

• Floors mopped with the agreed product
• Benches, sinks and splashbacks cleaned
• Chair bases, arms and non-clinical surfaces wiped
• Door handles, light switches and any patient-contact surfaces wiped
• General waste removed and bins relined

Waiting area and reception

• Chairs, counters and children's areas tidied and wiped
• Floors vacuumed or mopped every visit
• Reception glass and entry doors cleaned of fingerprints
• Magazines and brochures tidied

Bathrooms and staff areas

• Patient and staff bathrooms cleaned and sanitised, consumables restocked
• Staff room benches, sink, fridge front and microwave cleaned
• Dispensers checked and empties reported

The order matters: cleaner areas before dirtier ones, and the same order every visit so nothing depends on memory. The office cleaning checklist is a useful comparison for the non-clinical areas of a practice.

What the cleaner must never touch

A practice cleaner should be told, in writing, that the following are off limits:

• Instruments and anything on an instrument tray
• Sterilisation and reprocessing areas
• Sharps containers, full or otherwise
• Clinical waste bins and bags
• Medication and sample fridges

Anything found out of place, a full sharps container, a clinical bin that has not been collected, should be reported to the practice the same day, not dealt with.

Products and safety data sheets

Every chemical that comes onto the site should come with its manufacturer's safety data sheet, supplied before the first visit for your chemical register. Where your plan specifies a product, for example a hospital-grade disinfectant for particular surfaces, the cleaner should use it and supply its sheet. Where it does not, the cleaner should tell you what they use and why.

Safe Work Australia's guidance on managing risks of hazardous chemicals at safeworkaustralia.gov.au explains why the data sheets matter for the people using the products as well as for the practice.

Timing: after the last session, every day you are open

Practices run long days and often Saturday sessions. The routine should happen after the last session on each day the practice is open, with a different start time written into the scope for each day where the sessions differ. Early-morning cleans suit practices that run late. Periodic work such as carpet steam cleaning of waiting and consulting rooms is scheduled overnight so the carpet is dry before the first appointment; see the guide on how often carpet should be steam cleaned.

The records an assessor asks for

When accreditation asks about cleaning, a practice manager usually needs to produce:

• the cleaning schedule and the routine per room
• the products used and their safety data sheets
• the contractor's certificate of currency and confirmation of workers' compensation
• evidence that cleaning is checked, such as inspection records

A good contractor keeps all of this somewhere the practice can reach it without a phone call. At Delta it sits in the client portal alongside the visit history and the scored inspection results, which is the set of things managers tell us they are asked for.

What to ask a prospective cleaner

1. Will you write your routine around our infection-control plan, and show it to us?
2. Which products will you use on which surfaces, and can we have the safety data sheets now?
3. What is the order you clean rooms in, and does it change?
4. What will you never touch, and how will you report anything you find?
5. What time will you start on each day we are open, including Saturdays?
6. Who inspects the work, how is it scored, and do we see the result?
7. Are your cleaners police checked, and can we see the certificate of currency?

The ten questions for choosing a commercial cleaner cover the rest.

The periodic work a practice needs

Beyond the session clean, a practice has periodic work that keeps the environment in order and the accreditation file tidy: carpet steam cleaning of waiting and consulting rooms, high dusting of vents and ledges above treatment areas, cleaning of reception glass and partitions inside and out, and the strip and seal of vinyl floors that stand up to daily disinfectant. Each should be a dated line item in the scope with its own frequency, scheduled around sessions so the rooms are ready for the first patient, and recorded when it is done. A vent that sheds dust over a treatment bench is not a small thing in a practice, and it is exactly the kind of job that never happens unless it has a date.

Ask your cleaner which periodic tasks they recommend for your rooms, how often, and where the record of each one will sit.

Next step

Have your infection-control plan ready and book a free walkthrough. The owner walks the practice with you, writes the scope around the plan and shows you the compliance pack before anything is signed. Practices in the northside medical precinct can see how we work in Chermside, and the western suburbs strip in Indooroopilly.

Questions people ask

Does a cleaner need healthcare accreditation to clean a practice?

No. Accreditation applies to the practice, not the cleaning contractor. What the practice needs is a cleaner who works to its infection-control plan, uses the specified products in the right places, supplies the safety data sheets and keeps records the practice can show an assessor.

What should a practice cleaner never touch?

Instruments, sterilisation and reprocessing areas, sharps containers and clinical waste. These belong to the practice and its waste contractor. The cleaner cleans the environment: floors, benches, touch points, waiting areas, bathrooms and staff rooms.

How often should a medical practice be cleaned?

After every session on every day the practice is open, for most practices. Periodic tasks such as carpet steam cleaning and high dusting are scheduled around sessions. The practice manager and the cleaner set the frequency at the walkthrough.