Housekeeping and Engineering
A place to live and breathe.
A place to live and breathe.
Developing a Condo Association Infection Control Plan
In a hospital, one of the major responsibilities of the environmental services (housekeeping and laundry) team, as well as the facility maintenance teams is preventing nosocomial infections (Hospital Acquired Infections HAI). In the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, condo management teams have a similar priority, to prevent what is in many ways comparable to nosocomial infections in hospitals, but that we will refer to as Condo Acquired Infections (CAI). There are many principles of housekeeping and engineering from the healthcare world that apply to condo associations in a pandemic.
In a condo association, there could be hundreds of people potentially touching the same elevator buttons and door handles, breathing the same air, and interacting with staff. There is an additional factor that is somewhat different from a hospital setting … condo residents are ambulatory and potentially bringing infections into the condo. In a hospital setting, patients are usually confined to a bed, and are not leaving the hospital to go to the grocery store, etc. There are visitors who come in the hospital to visit patients, who could potentially have a communicable disease, but that is not equivalent to condo residents potentially being exposed to coronavirus in a pandemic environment. Thus, there are similarities as well as some differences between healthcare nosocomial infections, and condo acquired infections. These factors are taken into account in the design of a condo association infection control plan.
Condo Association Infection Control Plan
There are three key priorities for condo management in preventing the spread of coronavirus in condo associations – 1. Indoor Air Quality; 2. Preventing contact cross-contamination. And 3. Keeping staff healthy.
Engineering: Indoor Air Quality
In the Covid-19 Pandemic, the greatest risk related to indoor air quality is that the virus can be airborne – especially from droplets that come from an infected person who might cough or sneeze. A lot of the current prevention is focused on preventing the virus from becoming airborne, and thus it is of high importance that people who might be infected wear a mask, and others are encouraged to cover their mouth with something other than their hand. Resident behavior is key, but the operations team is focused on the part of the plan that can be controlled by the operations. The coronavirus is believed to linger in the air, so circulation, fresh air, and filtration are the key.
In smaller condo buildings, there is little that management can do to improve indoor air quality, especially if there is no forced air system for the stairwells. The good news for smaller associations is that the number of personal interactions is limited, so the risk is as well. With larger buildings there are more people, but also more opportunities to affect the indoor air quality. This section will focus on what larger buildings can do.
HVAC Systems
First is circulation. Older buildings in Chicago may have a re-circulating heating and cooling system. In these buildings, there is usually some kind of furnace system that heats the air, and it is blown with a fan system into the common areas, and then there is a cold air return, which draws the air back through ductwork to the furnace – to begin the process again. With such a system, there are three improvements that can improve the indoor air quality. 1. The current system most likely circulates air only when the thermostat calls for heat (or cooling in summer). Thus, during much of the time, the system is not circulating the air … it is off. So, the first thing that can be done, is turn the fan on to run constantly. If the air is circulating constantly, the next thing that should be done is to change the filters more frequently, and use filters that provide higher filtration to prevent circulating the contaminants in the air. Another thing that can be done, is to introduce fresh air into the system. With some systems, there is an economizer that can be opened to introduce the fresh air. With some older systems, it is possible to fabricate a system to mix fresh air with the circulating air, by providing an opening just before the filters.
With more modern Chicago condo buildings with make up air (MUA) systems, the system is designed to introduce fresh air into the building, and the key is to make sure the filters are clean and provide high filtration.
Elevators
One potentially critical area are the elevators. It is not clear how social distancing works in buildings with elevators. Elevator fans should be working. The elevator fans exhaust the air into the elevator shaft. While this is less than idea., they are drawing fresh air from the corridors when the doors open. The alternative is that the non-moving air just stays there when people come and go. This is why it is critical to have the elevator fans on.
Vacuuming
When building staff is vacuuming, the air is circulated … and potentially dirty air is circulated. This is why hospitals use HEPA filters on their vacuums, to avoid fine dirt from being spread. Hospital quality vacuums like the Windsor Versamatic are also used in hotels, and have 3 filters to keep the air being circulated from vacuuming as clean as possible.
Housekeeping: Cleaning and Disinfecting
High standards of cleanliness are of utmost importance. Cleaning is distinct from disinfecting, and that is important to know. To begin with, most disinfectants carry the following warning: “It is a violation of Federal Law to use this product in a manner inconsistent with its labeling.” This is true for disinfecting wipes, as well as germicidal cleaning chemicals. There are two reasons for this, first it is an EPA registered product – which effectively means that it is like a pesticide, and when put into the waste stream can cause pollution. Thus, the EPA does not want the product overused. Additionally, if the product is not used properly – for example if it is not diluted strong enough, it may not kill the germs it was intended to kill. This could be a safety issue, as the germs believed to be killed, may be active. Another way to not be effective in killing germs would be if the product were not allowed adequate ‘kill time’ to be effective. If the disinfecting solution were dried off, it would not allow sufficient kill time, normally 10 minutes.
Most disinfectants contain some detergent as well, to both clean and disinfect. So, the temptation for some housekeepers is to want to use a higher concentration of disinfectant than is allowed by law, because that is what is needed to give the level of detergency they want. This is improper technique.
Appropriateness of Types of Disinfectants
There are a few ways to kill germs … alcohol-based products, bleach-based products or quaternary ammonia disinfectants. It is important that the correct one is selected – as though they may be effective at killing Covid-19, but after this pandemic is over, the disinfectant may leave long term damage to the condo assets. Elevator buttons are a key are that need disinfecting, but alcohol-based disinfectants could have a solvent effect on plastic (i.e. causing frosting to the surface), and bleach is highly corrosive and there is copper electronic elements behind the buttons. Thus, caution is in order. Quaternary disinfectants are minimally corrosive, and do no have the solvents that could damage plastics with long term use.
Contact Areas
Disinfecting should be done on high contact areas, such as elevator buttons, door handles, stair rails, elevator rails, intercom keypads, etc. These get the most contact, and pose the greatest threat of cross contamination. Hospitals typically disinfect patient room floors, but the risk at a condo association may not be great enough at this time to warrant disinfecting the lobby floors or hallway carpeting.
Standard of Cleanliness
Though disinfecting is getting a lot of attention, just plain high standards of cleanliness goes a long way toward reducing the risk of cross-contamination. The CDC is repeatedly emphasizing just washing hands for 20 seconds with soap and water as an important precaution with Covid-19. Not with disinfecting solution – just soap and water. Similarly, just cleaning things reduces the risk of cross contamination. Getting rid of the dirt, oils, etc. takes with it a lot of germs.