Coronavirus Resources for Environmental Services

As an Envi­ron­men­tal Ser­vices Pro­fes­sion­al, you are the front line in Infec­tion Pre­ven­tion in hos­pi­tal envi­ron­ments. You know how to pre­pare for and man­age virus­es in your facil­i­ty. Since 2020 you’ve been fac­ing COVID-19 head on, and have donned PPE to take on the extra bur­den of dis­in­fect­ing affect­ed envi­ron­ments in your facil­i­ties.

To assist you in nav­i­gat­ing the mounds of COVID-19 infor­ma­tion online, here are quick links to fac­tu­al resources we’ve found that are espe­cial­ly direct­ed to Hos­pi­tal Envi­ron­men­tal Ser­vices:

Disinfecting

The Cen­ters for Dis­ease Con­trol and Pre­ven­tion (CDC) offers the lat­est rec­om­men­da­tions for envi­ron­men­tal ser­vices and infec­tion pre­ven­tion dur­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic. See the resources below for infor­ma­tion about clean­ing and dis­in­fect­ing your facil­i­ty and con­trol­ling the spread of COVID-19.

Envi­ron­men­tal Clean­ing and Dis­in­fec­tion Rec­om­men­da­tions: Clean­ing and Dis­in­fect­ing Your Facil­i­ty
Source: Cen­ters for Dis­ease Con­trol and Pre­ven­tion
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/organizations/cleaning-disinfection.html

Inter­im Infec­tion Pre­ven­tion and Con­trol Rec­om­men­da­tions for Health­care Per­son­nel Dur­ing the Coro­n­avirus Dis­ease 2019 (COVID-19) Pan­dem­ic
Source: Cen­ters for Dis­ease Con­trol  and Pre­ven­tion
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/infection-control-recommendations.html

Envi­ron­men­tal Infec­tion Con­trol Guide­lines
Source: Cen­ters for Dis­ease Con­trol and Pre­ven­tion
https://www.cdc.gov/infectioncontrol/guidelines/environmental/index.html

Disinfectants

The Nation­al Pes­ti­cide Infor­ma­tion Cen­ter (NPIC) offers fact sheets and info­graph­ics out­lin­ing COVID-19 dis­in­fec­tant safe­ty tips and instruc­tions.

Using Dis­in­fec­tants to Con­trol the COVID-19 Virus
Source: Nation­al Pes­ti­cide Infor­ma­tion Cen­ter and Pre­ven­tion
http://npic.orst.edu/ingred/ptype/amicrob/covid19.html

The U.S. Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion Agency (EPA) has an up-to-date list of dis­in­fec­tants to kill all strains and vari­ants of the coro­n­avirus, as well as help­ful info­graph­ics and videos.

List N: Dis­in­fec­tants for Coro­n­avirus (COVID-19)
Source: Unit­ed States Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion Agency
https://www.epa.gov/coronavirus/about-list-n-disinfectants-coronavirus-covid-19–0

Personal Protective Equipment

Fol­low the CDC chart below to learn the cor­rect sequence for putting on and remov­ing per­son­al pro­tec­tive equip­ment (PPE).

Sequence for Don­ning and Doff­ing Per­son­al Pro­tec­tive Equip­ment
Source: Cen­ters for Dis­ease Con­trol and Pre­ven­tion
https://www.cdc.gov/hai/pdfs/ppe/ppe-sequence.pdf

This resource from the CDC offers strate­gies for opti­miz­ing PPE sup­plies, includ­ing res­pi­ra­tors and face masks, dur­ing short­ages.

Opti­miz­ing Per­son­al Pro­tec­tive Equip­ment (PPE) Sup­plies
Source: Cen­ters for Dis­ease Con­trol and Pre­ven­tion
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/ppe-strategy/index.html

Mental Health Care

The COVID-19 pan­dem­ic has been unique­ly chal­leng­ing to front­line health­care work­ers. EVS work­ers have had to endure increased patient vol­ume and work­load as well as greater risks to per­son­al health and the health of their fam­i­lies.

Use this infor­ma­tion from Men­tal Health Amer­i­ca to address prob­lems such as sleep dif­fi­cul­ties and emo­tion­al over­load, and take online screen­ing tests for men­tal health con­di­tions.

Men­tal Health and COVID-19 Infor­ma­tion and Resources
Source: Men­tal Health Amer­i­ca
https://mhanational.org/covid19/frontline-workers

The Amer­i­can Hos­pi­tal Asso­ci­a­tion (AHA) has sup­plied a list of behav­ioral health resources to help front­line health­care work­ers cope dur­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic.

COVID-19: Stress and Cop­ing Resources
Source: Amer­i­can Hos­pi­tal Asso­ci­a­tion
https://www.aha.org/behavioralhealth/covid-19-stress-and-coping-resources

The resources below can help you con­nect with licensed men­tal health pro­fes­sion­als and sup­port lines.

Men­tal Health Resources for Health­care Work­ers and First Respon­ders
Source: Heroes Health Ini­tia­tive
https://heroeshealth.unc.edu/resources-for-health-care-workers/