Supporting, not replacing, your team
Hospitals, clinics, surgery centers, dialysis centers, dental and behavioral health practices, and senior-living communities all have their own cleaning protocols. We are brought in when an event exceeds normal capacity, occurs after hours, or involves materials your staff are not set up to remove.
Your infection preventionist and, where involved, the health department direct outbreak response. We follow their direction and your facility's policies on product selection, access and documentation.
When facilities typically call
- Large blood or bodily-fluid events in patient, resident or public areas
- Sewage backups affecting clinical or residential spaces
- A resident death in senior living that went undiscovered for a time
- Supplemental cleaning and disinfection during an illness outbreak, at the facility's request
- Contamination in non-clinical areas such as offices, storage or parking structures
- After-hours events when in-house staffing is limited
Organism-specific product choices
EPA groups registered disinfectants by the organisms their labels address, including List K for C. difficile spores, List G for norovirus, List H for MRSA and VRE, List P for Candida auris and List S for bloodborne pathogens. We match the product to the organism identified by your team and follow label directions, including contact time.
For C. diff, CDC points to List K products used per manufacturer instructions, which often call for cleaning first. CDC's environmental guidance for healthcare also emphasizes removing organic matter before disinfection. See C. diff decontamination and norovirus decontamination for more.
How we coordinate a response
- Align with your team We confirm the area, the organism of concern if known, your preferred products and any isolation or access requirements.
- Contain We set up barriers to keep patients, residents and visitors away from the work area.
- Remove and clean Contaminated materials are removed and surfaces are cleaned before disinfection.
- Disinfect We apply the agreed EPA-registered product per label and hold contact time.
- Package waste Waste is packaged and labeled for handoff to your regulated medical waste vendor or appropriate disposal.
- Report back We share the products, areas and steps involved for your records.
Boundaries that matter in healthcare
We do not make clinical decisions, test patients or declare an outbreak over. Regulated medical waste is transported and treated by the facility's medical waste vendor; in Tennessee, medical waste is a special waste requiring TDEC approval before disposal. Construction-related infection control is a specialized discipline, and we will tell you if a request falls outside what we do.
Your bloodborne pathogens program, including exposure control planning and staff training, remains the facility's responsibility under OSHA and TOSHA.
Planning ahead with your facility
Many facilities find it useful to talk with us before anything happens. We can learn your access procedures, preferred products, contacts for nights and weekends, and how your team wants waste handed off. That way, if an event occurs, the first call is about the incident rather than logistics.
If your facility requires vendor screening, immunization records or orientation before outside workers can enter patient areas, let us know early so those requirements can be addressed.
Senior living and residential care
When a resident dies in assisted living or memory care, staff and other residents are often grieving. We work quietly and coordinate with administrators and families about personal belongings. After the medical examiner or funeral home has removed the person who died, we can clean the room and address any odor. Our Nashville-area team travels to care facilities throughout Middle Tennessee.