Cleaning a Physio or Allied Health Clinic: Treatment Tables, Gym Floors and Shared Rooms
Allied health clinics fall between two stools. They are not GP clinics, so a cleaner does not always treat them with the same care. But they are not offices either: patients lie face-down on tables, touch shared equipment in a rehab gym, and walk barefoot across treatment rooms. The risk is lower than a general practice and higher than most cleaners assume.
This is how we think about cleaning physiotherapy, podiatry, chiropractic, osteopathy, exercise physiology and psychology practices across Melbourne.
Treatment rooms
The table is the centre of the room, and the practitioner wipes it between patients. The night clean is the deeper version:
- Table vinyl, face hole, headrest and adjustable parts cleaned with detergent, then disinfected, and checked for splits. A split in the vinyl cannot be cleaned properly; flag it.
- Pillows and bolsters that are covered in vinyl cleaned the same way; any with fabric covers go to the practice's laundry.
- Floors mopped with a clinical-zone mop, because many patients will be barefoot tomorrow.
- Door handles, light switches, chair arms, the practitioner's desk and keyboard.
- Hand basin, taps and dispensers, restocked.
- Bins emptied. Podiatry clinics will have clinical waste and sharps; the cleaner should never handle either beyond keeping the area clean.
The rehab gym
This is where allied health clinics are most often under-cleaned, because a cleaner treats it as floor space.
- Handles and grips: dumbbells, kettlebells, cable handles, resistance bands, bike handlebars, treadmill rails.
- Benches and mats: exercise mats and Pilates reformers are skin-contact surfaces and should be cleaned and disinfected nightly.
- Floors: rubber gym flooring needs the right product and method, not the same mop as the waiting room. Get this wrong and it goes sticky or slippery.
- Mirrors and glass at hand and body height.
Agree which pieces of equipment the practice wipes between clients and which the cleaner does at night, and put it in the scope. Otherwise everyone assumes the reformer is someone else's.
Shared and sessional rooms
Many clinics rent rooms to sessional practitioners: a psychologist Monday and Wednesday, a dietitian on Thursdays. Rooms that change hands need to be reset every visit, not only on the days the permanent staff use them. Make sure the scope covers every room every visit, occupied or not, unless you have agreed otherwise.
Psychology and counselling rooms carry less infection risk, but they are where a client's first impression matters most. Soft furnishings, tissues, bins and the smell of the room are the job.
Reception and waiting
The same as any clinic: chairs and arms, counter, EFTPOS terminal, sign-in tablet, pens, water cooler, children's toys if you have them. Hand sanitiser dispensers checked and refilled.
Products and equipment
A TGA-listed hospital-grade disinfectant for treatment tables and clinical touch points; a neutral detergent for general surfaces; the right cleaner for rubber gym floors. Colour-coded cloths and mops by zone, so the cloth that did the toilets never touches a treatment table.
The record
Allied health professions have their own registration standards and many practices are accredited. Either way, a practice should be able to show what was cleaned and when. Every visit we make is signed in and out on our app inside a geofence around the practice, with a photo, and a supervisor inspects every three weeks. It is the same system we use in GP clinics, and it works just as well for a two-room physio practice as for a multi-disciplinary centre.
Getting the scope right
The fastest way to a good scope is a walkthrough at the end of a busy day, with the practice manager pointing at the things that bother them. Our GP clinic cleaning checklist covers the clinical basics, and medical cleaning Melbourne sets out how we work. We already clean practices in suburbs including Blackburn, Templestowe, Preston and Glenroy. Ask for a walkthrough.