Disinfecting is a procedure, not a spray bottle

Almost every building in America bought disinfectant in 2020 and almost none of them use it correctly. The label on the bottle names a contact time, usually somewhere between one and ten minutes, and a surface that gets wiped dry after twenty seconds has been cleaned rather than disinfected. It looks identical. It is not the same thing.

We treat disinfection as a separate step with its own rules: cleaned first because soil blocks the chemistry, correct product for the surface, applied wet, left for the stated dwell time, and recorded. In a school or a clinic that record is the difference between saying you disinfect and being able to prove it.

What the visit covers

• EPA registered disinfectants matched to the surface and the setting
• Soil removed first, because disinfectant on a dirty surface does nothing
• Full label dwell time observed on every application
• Door handles, push plates, pulls and panic bars
• Light switches, thermostats, elevator buttons and keypads
• Shared keyboards, phones, copier panels and touch screens
• Restroom fixtures, dispensers, stall latches and rails
• Break room appliance handles, taps and vending buttons
• Waiting room arms, reception counters and pens
• Application logged by area and date, left with your contact

Where it belongs and where it is theatre

Disinfecting an open carpeted floor is theatre. Disinfecting the eleven objects that forty people touch every day is infection control. The value is entirely in choosing correctly, which is why the scope names surfaces rather than rooms.

In offices this usually runs as part of the nightly visit. In clinics, dental suites, schools and gyms it is a defined program with its own frequency, its own products and its own log, because those buildings have to answer to somebody with a clipboard sooner or later.