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Hygiene is of paramount importance in the care home setting, but finding a cleaning product that can stand up to stubborn stains and odours, whilst reducing its impact on the environment is a challenge.
Here, James Law, Commercial Director at 2Pure Products, explains how OdorBac Tec4 revolutionised the cleaning process at a group of UK care homes, replacing over 90 per cent of existing cleaning products, reducing risk, training requirements and environmental impact, while increasing efficiency, speed and results.
Care UK is one of the UK’s largest independent care providers. They operate more than 150 homes around the country offering expert residential and nursing care, and are specialists in dementia, respite and end-of-life care.
Care UK take huge pride in their homes, which often include coffee shops, cinemas, beauty treatment rooms and beautiful dementia friendly gardens.
Care UK was one of the first major companies to adopt 2Pure Products’ multi-purpose odour control and all surface cleaning product, OdorBac Tec4. This patented market-changing solution is believed to be the safest yet most powerful all-in-one odour eliminator, and truly multi-purpose commercial cleaner, in the world. Today, every Care UK home uses OdorBac Tec4 as its main cleaning product.
The challenge
All care home environments present multiple challenges when it comes to cleaning. Ensuring that hygiene levels are of the highest standards is of paramount importance, as is using products that improve the safety of residents, staff and visitors.
From ensuring that shared environments, such as dining rooms and lounges, are kept hazard free and pleasant to be in, to keeping residents’ rooms clean and hygienic; care home cleaning operatives have a lot to consider, including staining and odour control.
Futureproofing the care home environment is also vital and the actual cleaning products used will help determine the longevity of items such as carpets, furniture and soft furnishings. If a cleaning product cannot stand up to the common issues typically found in a care home, it can pose significant risks.
Traditionally, in an attempt to tackle these common care home hygiene issues, cleaning operatives used multiple hygiene products, resulting in multiple costs, risk assessments and training. Care UK wanted to find a better solution and looked for a high-quality, multi-purpose solution that was safe for the environment in which it would be used.
The solution
Care UK chose 2Pure Products’ OdorBac Tec4 as its cleaning product of choice seven years ago, and continues to use the multi-purpose solution in every single one of its care homes daily.
Back in 2015, Care UK challenged 2Pure Products’ technology to clean some of its most complex hygiene situations using only OdorBac Tec4. The aim was initially to eliminate carpet odours and spot stains from soft surfaces.
OdorBac Tec4 was not only able to remove the most stubborn odours, but it also worked just as well on all other surfaces, allowing Care UK to clean an entire building with just one safe, green cleaning product while enhancing the environment for residents, staff and visitors alike.
As a result, Care UK rolled out the use of OdorBac Tec4 as its sole cleaning solution across all of its care homes in the UK. The product is now used in residents’ rooms, front of house, corridors and communal areas across the portfolio.
To support the use of OdorBac Tec4, 2Pure Products have also provided Care UK with a ‘spill book’ initiative. This provides the nurses on the night shift with a bottle of OdorBac Tec4 ‘trouble shooter’ spray, and a spill book. This means that if a spillage occurs during the night when the cleaners are not present, the nursing team can spray the affected area to pre-treat the contamination, and write the incident in the spill book. The homes cleaning colleagues can then take it from there in the morning.
The results
By investing in one multi-purpose product, Care UK has been able to replace over 90% of existing cleaning products, reducing risk, training requirements and environmental impact, while increasing efficiency, speed and results.
Since the introduction of OdorBac Tec4, progress has consistently improved with residents and their families scoring the cleanliness and odour control of Care UK homes higher and higher in regular independent satisfaction surveys.
Sustainability was also an important consideration for Care UK when selecting a new cleaning product. Thanks to 2Pure Products’ green commitments, Care UK has saved 3,690 kilograms of C02, and has prevented 2,775 kilograms of virgin plastic being produced, over the past year. 2Pure Products is also currently investigating with Care UK the possibility of creating a closed loop system, which will see the used 100% recycled plastic container returned to the 2Pure factory, washed and refilled and returned to the care home on the next scheduled delivery.
Jon Bicknell, Food and Services Director at Care UK, said: “Following extensive trials in multiple homes, we rolled out OdorBac throughout our portfolio in October 2015, with 2Pure providing on-site training. As a result of switching to OdorBac, we have been able to consolidate the different products used to clean the homes dramatically which has also reduced the risk, training requirement and environmental impact. OdorBac is a key product, and 2Pure continue to provide the ongoing support that helps enables Care UK to achieve and maintain the high standards required by our organisation.”
