The Waters of Edina housekeeping staff first in the nation to achieve non-acute care cleaning certification

Resident health and safety is of paramount importance to The Waters Senior Living, and one of its communities now has a major distinction. All of the housekeeping staff at The Waters of Edina Senior Living Community has achieved non-acute care cleaning certification, becoming the first non-medical center staff in the nation to do so, according to a press release.

The staff has successfully completed a specialized training program through the Association for the Health Care Environment that closely mirrors the certification people working in hospitals are recommended to complete. As part of their 24-hours of training, all of the housekeepers learned the difference between cleaning, sanitizing, disinfecting and sterilizing.

“A lot of people use those words interchangeably, but they are very different,” said Patrick Covington, Lead Environmental Services Manager for The Waters of Edina, and the person in charge of training. Covington received the certified healthcare environmental services technician certification while at Hennepin County Medical Center, and the non-acute care cleaning certification once he arrived at The Waters.

Resident health and safety is of paramount importance to The Waters Senior Living, and one of its communities now has a major distinction. All of the housekeeping staff at The Waters of Edina Senior Living Community has achieved non-acute care cleaning certification, becoming the first non-medical center staff in the nation to do so, according to a press release.

The staff has successfully completed a specialized training program through the Association for the Health Care Environment that closely mirrors the certification people working in hospitals are recommended to complete. As part of their 24-hours of training, all of the housekeepers learned the difference between cleaning, sanitizing, disinfecting and sterilizing.

“A lot of people use those words interchangeably, but they are very different,” said Patrick Covington, Lead Environmental Services Manager for The Waters of Edina, and the person in charge of training. Covington received the certified healthcare environmental services technician certification while at Hennepin County Medical Center, and the non-acute care cleaning certification once he arrived at The Waters.

“Cleaning is the physical removal of something through mechanical action; sanitizing is typically what happens in food service whereby it removes the bio level to an acceptable level; disinfecting is when you add a killing component to it; and sterilization is the complete destruction of all microbial life,” he said.

Now that all of the housekeepers at The Waters of Edina have been certified, efforts are underway to train housekeeping staff at other The Waters properties. Already, one member of the housekeeping staff at The Waters on 50th in Minneapolis, The Waters of Highland Park in St. Paul, and The Waters of White Bear Lake have been trained.