Terminal Cleaning

Terminal cleaning is a deep-cleaning process carried out when a patient vacates a room — either through discharge, transfer, or death. It goes beyond daily cleaning and includes disinfection of all high-touch surfaces, equipment, curtains, floors, and often the mattress, using validated disinfectants at defined concentrations and contact times.

Terminal cleaning breaks the environmental chain of transmission before the next patient arrives. It is particularly critical after isolation cases involving spore-forming or drug-resistant organisms.

Post-discharge cleaning of isolation rooms, operating theatres between cases, and any patient area following contact-precaution admissions.