Critical Housekeeping in Pharmaceutical Industry

Introduction?

Whenever there is a discussion on medicine, hospitals and clinics usually take center stage. People seldom talk about the pharmaceutical industry and its facilities, which also play an essential role in medicine.?

Parallel to maintaining a clean and hygienic environment in hospitals and other medical facilities, it is also crucial that you follow the same in pharmaceutical facilities. In this blog, you will learn more about the cleaning and sanitization processes of pharmaceutical facilities.?

Housekeeping in Pharmaceutical Facilities ?

Typically, pharmaceutical facilities consist of rooms called cleanrooms or clean areas. These rooms are used to manufacture sterile products like injectable medicines, gauze, glass, plastic containers, etc. ?

Why are they called cleanrooms? Cleanrooms create a controlled environment that maintains air particles and contaminants below a specific level. Such an environment is necessary for manufacturing sterile products. ?

These contaminants include dust particles, smoke, and fumes, harmful microorganisms, etc. The only way to maintain the hygiene and controlled levels in these cleanrooms is through proper cleaning and sanitization processes.??

You can do so with the help of cleaning agents like detergents and also disinfectants.?Furthermore,?HVAC systems along with UV light can help maintain?good?air quality.???

Types of Cleaning and Sanitization Process?

The sanitization and cleaning process can be divided into three types.?

• Room sanitization - involves keeping the cleanrooms hygienic and sterile.
• Equipment sanitization - includes keeping all the manufacturing equipment clean.?
• Glove sanitization - entails frequent sanitization of the gloves used by the facility personnel.

Apart from the different processes, there are?also?a few types of disinfectants and sanitizing agents.?Non-oxidizing disinfectants (alcohol, aldehyde) and oxidizing agents (hydrogen peroxide) are some widely used disinfectant types.??

How Should You Clean and Disinfect??

Cleaning and sanitizing surfaces in a pharmaceutical company involve a few steps that you must follow in a particular order.?Executing these stages in that order will help you reap the best and most hygienic results at your facility.??

1. Cleaning?

Cleaning is the process of removing dust, dirt, residue, etc.,?from the surfaces.?The cleaning stage only goes to the extent of making the surfaces visually clean. You can do so with the help of detergents.?Apart from?cleaning?surfaces, you must also clean?and maintain?the manufacturing equipment.??

2. Disinfecting?

Before you get into disinfecting surfaces and equipment, you must ensure that you thoroughly clean them.?The disinfection process should only take place after the cleaning stage.??

Disinfection is the process that?helps in reducing the number of microorganisms from a surface?with the help of disinfectants.?

You must ensure that the disinfectant layer stays on the surface for the desired period for maximum efficiency. Typically, the disinfectant’s manufacturer provides details on the time limit. ??

Best Practices?That You Can Follow?

Here are a few best practices that you should follow while cleaning and disinfecting your pharmaceutical facility.?These practices help in improving sanitation efficiency. Some of them are even recognized and recommended by the?Centers for Disease Control and Prevention?(CDC).??

• Ensure that you clean first before disinfecting?
• While cleaning and wiping, follow a parallel?and?overlapping motion instead of a circular motion??
• During the cleaning stage,??
• Clean from the cleaner side to the dirtier side?
• Clean from the higher surface to the lower surface (or top to bottom)?
• Clean from the back to the front?
• Stick to two disinfectants and periodically rotate them during the disinfection process?

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Major Touchpoints that You Should Focus On?

As seen in the previous section, you should always clean from the dirtier side to the cleaner side. But not all surfaces are visually dirty.?So, how do you know which surface?is highly-contaminated and?needs the most attention??

One way of knowing this is by noting all the highly used or touched surfaces at your facility. These surfaces are touchpoints that many people come into contact with multiple times throughout the day. A few common examples of these touchpoints include,?

• Door handles?
• Switches?
• Tables?
• Trays?
• Manufacturing equipment?
• Restroom taps?
• The system that operates the air quality control device?

There may be many more touchpoints at your facility that only you can find out. Ensure that you give special attention to all these touchpoints by regularly cleaning and disinfecting them. This consistent process is the only way of reducing contamination and keeping your facility?and cleanrooms?sterile.??

Conclusion?

The points in this article discuss the best practices that you must follow while cleaning and sanitizing your pharmaceutical facility. However, to effectively achieve this, you must first formulate and design a dedicated plan that best suits your facility. This plan should contain lists of highly used touchpoints, cleaning and disinfecting process and schedules, and other particulars that relate to your situation in a specific way.

Instead of bearing the onus of this task, you can turn to the professionals at SMC IFM India.?We are a facility management service platform that can look into every minute detail of your facility.?Our solutionists can?assist?in your cleaning and disinfecting processes and?in keeping?your cleanroom air quality in check.??