How to improve the efficiency of your sluice room

At Stanbridge, we believe that efficiency and hygiene go hand-in-hand. Here is how you can optimise your sluice room to ensure a safer, smoother, and more compliant operation, helping to reduce HCAIs. 

Streamline your process

It’s important to streamline the process of using the sluice room to stop cross-contamination and maintain a strict “dirty-to-clean” flow. The distance to dispose of human waste should be minimised. Containers with lids should be used where possible to help reduce spillages and odours, and preserve dignity. There should be a clearly separate disposal and decontamination area away from the clean side, where utensils are stored on drying racks. All personnel should wash their hands after handling contaminated items and before leaving the room.

Invest in reliable equipment

At the heart of every sluice room should be a high-quality bedpan washer disinfector for consistent cleaning and decontamination of utensils with every use. This reduces splashback risks, which can happen during manual cleaning, and ensures all equipment is decontaminated. 

Trained staff

A sluice room is only effective if the people using it are fully trained on your specific equipment and infection control protocols.

By helping staff to understand the why behind the best practices, such as machine loading and hand hygiene, they are more likely to follow it, actively reducing cross-contamination and effectively breaking the chain of infection should an outbreak arise.

Prevent Limescale 

Limescale is more than just an eyesore; it harbours bacteria and causes equipment to fail. 

Keeping your bedpan washer disinfectors stocked with Deocale solution is essential in preventing scale buildup, ensuring optimal performance, and increasing the machine’s longevity. 

Correct signage & Instructions 

Having clean signage and instructions, such as loading charts and hand washing guides available at all times, acts as a constant reminder of best practices within the sluice room. This ensures equipment is loaded correctly every time, works effectively, and further reduices cross contmaniation. 

Regular Servicing 

To keep a sluice room running smoothly, regular servicing of equipment is paramount to minimise downtime from machine breakdowns. Scheduling an engineer for preventative maintenance ensures equipment remains effective, compliant and ready to use. 

Is your sluice room as efficient as it could be? Contact our team of experts today on 01689 806 500 to book a free site survey or to learn more about how we can help with your infection control needs.