National guidelines for sanitation services: Addressing the unmet need of standardizing cleaning practices in tertiary care public health facilities of a developing country.

Abstract

Cleanliness is one of the main reasons for poor satisfaction among the patients and their attendants visiting healthcare facilities. To elevate and transform the sanitation in public sector facilities, a committee was constituted by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India to study the existing system of Housekeeping in Central Government Hospitals and draft the Guidelines for house-keeping services, since no such literature is available in context of the healthcare facilities in India. The committee ascertained the housekeeping services in three tertiary care hospitals of Central Government and simultaneously conducted the literature review of the best practices in hospital sanitation and housekeeping. Formulated national guidelines focus on various aspects of sanitation services in health facilities, i.e., hospital infrastructure; organization of sanitation services; human resource requirements; qualification, experience and training needs of sanitation staff; roles and responsibilities of different personnel; risk categorization of hospital areas; mechanized cleaning; cleaning agents; cleaning standards and standard operating procedures; effective supervision and monitoring; procurement of these services, etc. Formulated guidelines can be adopted by developing countries aiming for standardizing cleaning practices in public health facilities.