Floor Care: Safe, Quick and Green

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According to Liz Imel, director of environmental services for Mercy Health Center in Fort Scott, Kan., there are lots of challenges to consider when you’re in charge of taking care of the floors in a health care setting.

Quickly cleaning a hospital room when a patient leaves and making it ready before the next patient arrives in the room on a gurney is one challenge. Having floors that are clean, look good, and are safe for patients, visitors, and employees is another big challenge in a hospital environment.  

Mercy Health Center in Fort Scott has 68 beds, including 12 rehabilitation beds; serves parts of Kansas and southwest Missouri; and has 465 full-time equivalent (FTE) employees. There are almost 180,000 square feet of VCT (vinyl composition tile) floors in the facility. The hospital is part of the system operated in a seven-state area by Sisters of Mercy of the St. Louis Regional Community, and is the ninth largest Catholic healthcare system in the United States. 

Imel learned about a new floor care system from a colleague at another Mercy facility. 

“We share best practices, and keep each other informed and up-to-date. My associate called me and told me about a great new way to take care of VCT floors:  the Twister System,” she said.  

The Twister™ System is a stone, concrete, and VCT floor care system developed by Continental Commercial Products (CCP) of St. Louis. 

“It can replace all other cleaning methods for floors, and eliminates the use of floor strippers and finishes.  The Twister System works by micro-polishing the surface of the floor, not by chemically stripping or shining the floor,” says Barry Brown, product training manager for Continental Commercial Products.     

Other than the environmentally friendly pH neutral cleaner that is part of the Twister™ program, the system eliminates the need for caustic stripping agents and polishing chemicals, and doesn’t have any harmful side effects that impair health or harm the ecosystem. The Twister System, available through Continental’s approved distributors, involves just a few components:  three patented color-coded pads and a specially formulated cleaner. The white, yellow, and green Twister™ pads are a combination of high performance floor pads and selected polishing materials, including industrial diamonds.  

Maintenance workers don’t have to be extensively trained to use the Twister System. They can use their existing low speed or high-speed floor machines. Because the Twister can eliminate time-consuming strip and wax cycles, building maintenance cycles are improved. 

“We look for methods that allow us to do our job safer, faster and with reduced costs.  We seek products and systems that are environmentally friendly, because we are committed to reducing our use of
hazardous chemicals. The Twister does all those things for us – it’s not only faster and safer but it’s also greener,” says Imel. “It was so easy to get started with the Twister System because we didn’t have to buy new equipment. It works with our existing equipment.”  

She also pointed out that the cleaner is a non-hazardous product, so it well-accepted and employees easily learned how to use it. 

“Our employees didn’t have to learn a new program. They could take the knowledge they already had and apply it,” says Imel.

Continental’s Twister System has been in use at the Mercy Hospital in Fort Scott for over a year. Imel reports that, in addition to the system making the floor-cleaning process safer, faster, and greener, the housekeepers tell her that their mopping is easier.  “The mops flow over the floors easier than before, and the level of fatigue is reduced among the staff,” says Imel.

There haven’t been any complaints from the Mercy co-workers regarding the Twister. 

“We did have a few bumps at the very beginning, but when we had a problem, we just contacted the folks at Continental, told them what our questions were, and they made the appropriate suggestions,” according to Imel.     

“We’ve seen that the people using the system in hospital settings are amazed at the fact they can get such good results in a short amount of time. They have no problems in using the Twister because they can learn the system in ten minutes. We also hear that the users love the safety aspect of the Twister, because they are not being exposed to caustic chemicals,” says Continental’s Barry Brown.

Imel says they are very pleased with the condition of the floors.

“The floors look much better than they used to look, and it’s easier to maintain the high level of cleanliness and appearance.”  She said that they haven’t done any formal time studies, but there are definite labor savings because they don’t have to block or barricade the floors while the workers using the Twister System.   

Continental’s Brown mentioned that, in addition to patient rooms, hospitals have three other areas of great interest for the use of the Twister System. 

“Emergency rooms and the operating rooms have very little downtime, and people like the quick turnaround times that the Twister offers. The area in front of elevators is also a popular place for use of the Twister. The workers can cordon off small areas of those high traffic areas, and they can complete the necessary maintenance in five to ten minutes. Our process allows the deterioration caused by high foot traffic to be reversed quickly and economically.”    

When asked if she has any advice for other managers who are thinking about introducing the
Twister System at their facilities, Imel says, “They ought to look into it.  Sometimes it’s hard to think ‘outside of the box’ about floor care, but people should definitely consider the Twister because we found it to be safer for people and the environment. Needless to say, it’s also faster and easier than our former, more traditional floor care efforts were.”