Tackling the backroom mystery areas

There has been a lot written about the importance of housekeeping and, in particular, how important room cleaning staff members are. But what about the backend services such as kitchen and laundry?

Yes, cooking is a vitally important seven-day-a-week job, but who cleans up the mess created by those hard-working chefs and their assistants? And the importance of a good functioning laundry cannot be underestimated.

The laundry works hard washing a whole range of items. Bed linen and bathroom items are consistent jobs and so too are residents’ clothing and common area washables like curtains.   

These two vital services often have some of the longest serving staff members – those who just get the job done efficiently, without complaint.

Mealtimes are also big events. In many facilities everyone pitches in to distribute meals, but the clean-up can be forgotten. Morning and afternoon tea is not a big production in most facilities but the crockery still requires washing.

Yes, there are mechanical dishwashers to do the laborious work. But the prep to scrape and rinse plates takes time. And with very short washing cycles to save water and chemicals, the items must be correctly placed in the racks for an optimal wash.

Dishwashers – and the specific pot and pan washers some facilities have – needs to must operate at the correct temperature to sanitise as well as clean the items. The temperature must be checked and recorded every month to satisfy health requirements.

This is often a service carried out by the specialist chemical supplier whose chemicals are used in the machine. With such a short wash cycle, good quality commercial chemicals must be used.

The supplier carries out a titration to check the chemical balance and basic operation of the machine. They also check the water is the correct temperature.

Most modern dishwashing machines have built in chemical dispensing systems with sensors that determine the amount of cleaning product and rinse aid required. These sensors must be serviced and cleaned to give an accurate reading.

Laundries also have items that need to be washed. Commercial laundry machines offer pre-set programs matched to chemical requirements.

There are numerous laundry chemical methods on the market ranging from traditional to an ozone system. The former can use up to five different chemicals injected into the wash cycle as required by a pre-programmed system.

The skill of the operator is to correctly sort the wash and choose the correct program.

There is debate from conventional chemical suppliers and alternatives, such as ozone, as to which system is better.

Traditional supplies need dispensing pumps for each chemical. The latest technology is Wi-Fi-enabled so the supplier can monitor the performance of the pump and remotely change its settings if required.

There have been instances where the supplier has contacted the customer to inform them they had an issue with their wash cycles before the customer realised they had a problem.

Kitchen and laundry areas are both large users of resources such as water and chemicals. There was a time when several facilities started using disposable plates and cups to reduce the cleanup manpower required but the enormous amount of waste generated quickly saw that trend reverse back to washable items.

There has been a lot of so-called new chemicals released for the room service cleaning procedure but apart from ozone in laundries – which has been used for several years – traditional chemicals with some refinements continue to be preferred. 

The ozone system utilises specialised technology to split oxygen molecules by an electrical charge before allowing them to reform into an ozone molecule with oxygen atoms.

The result is the molecules attack the cell membrane of bacteria, viruses and so on. The system needs specialist technicians to maintain it, but its use dramatically reduces the chemicals required.

Technological advances in machinery and the ability for the machines to ‘think’ and automatically recalibrate themselves means less water and chemicals are used.

Continuous development work is being carried out with enzymes. Testing has shown that the fresher the enzyme the better it performs. A recent finalist at the ISSA Cleaning and Hygiene Innovation Expo was a BioLogical Bug Grower – a do-it-yourself enzyme factory.

A very effective previously imported enzyme urine digestor is now being manufactured in Australia to supply fresh bugs that are more active than those that have sat in transit in a shipping container for a few months before they are used.

Backend services are the often-unseen backbone of a well-run facility – don’t forget them

The use of robots to take food to the dining area and return used crockery and cutlery to the wash bay is reducing the staff required but we have yet to see a robot clean the items – but no doubt it will eventually happen.

Kitchen, laundry and housekeeping chemical suppliers are a vital part of the team to keep a facility operating efficiently. They must provide service and reports accountable to the authorities.

They should also supply staff with chemical safety training, appropriate mandatory signage and updated skills in basic tasks – such as how to stack a dishwasher, sort laundry and select the correct wash cycle.  

Backend services are the often-unseen backbone of a well-run facility. Don’t forget them.

John Taylor is an expert advisor to the cleaning industry with international acknowledgements in training and techniques whose primary focus is on consultancy to the health and aged care sectors

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