Preventing Flies in Your Healthcare Facility

Flies are a nuisance wherever they decide to make their home. Their constant buzzing, flying around, and general unpleasantness isn’t anything anyone wants to deal with. They’re especially troublesome in healthcare environments. Flies feed and live in decaying matter and waste. While they’re infesting this waste, they often come across potentially harmful diseases. They can spread these diseases to humans all-too-easily.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, flies cause all sorts of other trouble for healthcare facilities, too. Here’s everything you should know about problems flies pose to your facility, and how you can keep them out.

What are other risks that flies pose to healthcare facilities?

Flies frequently contaminate food and packaging materials. They tend to leave behind a little bit of the waste and germs they collect wherever they go. Whenever they land on something, it’s a safe bet that they’re contaminating it. Flies in your healthcare facility can spread the diseases already inside or even introduce new ones.

Obviously, flies don’t look good for your facility, either. We’re guessing you’re all-too-familiar with how stringent healthcare hygiene inspection guidelines are. If an inspector finds flies in your facility, you could be looking at major fines, or worse. There’s also the simple matter of morale. Your employees–not to mention your patients!–don’t want to see flies buzzing around their healthcare facility.

What can my healthcare facility do to prevent flies from entering?

Your best defense against a potential fly problem is knowledge. Figure out what they want and where they’re coming from so you can shut them out. In most healthcare buildings, flies prefer the following areas:

• • The drains. We’ve already mentioned that flies love natural waste and decay. If you have a problem with flies, in most cases you’re going to find that they’re coming from your drains. Over time, drains collect waste, moisture, and other matter. All this stuff comes together to form a gross, gloppy substance that sticks inside the drain. Flies will feed on and lay eggs in this substance if they have the chance. Clean out your drains regularly to make sure they don’t.
  • Trash compactors. All hospitals have trash compactors because all hospitals go through a lot of waste. Keeping your facilities’ trash compactor and trash chutes clean is important, especially if you have fly issues. Clean out your trash compactor thoroughly at least once a week to prevent fly-attracting stuff from building up inside it.
  • Cafeterias. Flies love water, flies love shelter, and of course… flies love food. Flies love infesting the easy-to-access organic waste that gets into cafeteria garbage bins each day. Clean the cafeteria very thoroughly every day to keep flies from getting what they want. Don’t forget to take out the garbage!

If you need any assistance defending your healthcare facility from flies, look no further than Assured Environments. We understand how important it is to keep pests out so you can keep your patients safe.