Whether you are in a hospital, doctor’s office, retirement community or some other form of healthcare facility, you expect things to be clean. You expect hospitals and doctor’s offices, in particular, to have a sterile environment where beds, patient areas, medical equipment and other important components of patient care are kept clean and free from things like insects.
The problem is that when you have a facility where there are a large number of people, food service, and buildings with multiple rooms, you run the risk of pests. This includes the dreaded bed bug, which can infest patient rooms and feed off the blood of patients. Every year, pest infestations in healthcare facilities do happen. That’s why healthcare facility managers invest heavily in pest control treatment programs.
If you run a healthcare facility and worry about a bed bug infestation, contact the experts in bed bug control at Ehrlich for a consultation today.
What are bed bugs?
Bed bugs are very tiny insects, but they can cause a huge problem. Just two of them can cause an infestation. They are so tiny they can hide within the folds of a mattress, or cracks in a piece of wooden furniture or behind photos, pictures, within light fixtures or in electrical sockets. This makes it hard to find them all and just missing a couple of them can cause a re-infestation.
Bed bugs feed off blood. They need blood to reproduce and will stay hidden until they need to feed. They prefer to hide near where they can easily access their favorite meal – humans. They will sneak out at night and feed off the blood of patients, painlessly and usually undetected until the morning when blood spots and red bite marks show up on the bed and patient respectively.
How do you get rid of bed bugs in hospitals?
Bed bugs are hard to get rid of. While certain bed bug treatment methods are effective, the trick is that the pests are very, very good at hiding. Because of their size, unless you are trained to find all potential bed bug hiding places, you could easily miss a few of them. Just when you think you’ve gotten rid of the bed bugs, they can come back and start an infestation all over again.
Develop a bed bug treatment plan
Because bed bugs are so hard to find and require special tools and training, it’s best to work on a bed bug treatment plan for your hospital, doctor’s office or treatment facility. It usually takes more than one treatment to fully get rid of a bed bug infestation and prevent them from returning.
This is why the best bet for those running a healthcare facility is to have professionals set up a treatment plan and provide reliable technology and methods to detect, remove and prevent bed bugs.
Bed bug detection and treatment options
Your pest control company should have trained specialists that can know how to seek out the hiding places where bed bugs can hide. They should use the latest technology and stay up to date on new methods of detection. By partnering with a reliable pest control provider, you can rest easy and focus on running other aspects of your healthcare facility and not have to worry about pests and pest control.
Whether through the use of bed bug dogs or other detection methods, pest control companies like Ehrlich can quickly confirm infestations. Once identified, your pest control partner should use methods like heat treatments and spot treatments to get rid of the bed bug invasion.
Your reputation depends on bed bug control
The last thing that you need is a report of bed bugs or other pests in your healthcare facility and patient rooms becoming public. By the time a photograph from a patient or family member gets out showing the signs of bed bugs, bed bug bites or other signs of pests, it’s too late. Your reputation can be damaged. This is why it’s best to get a pest control treatment plan in place as quickly as possible.
To stop worrying about pest control issues and invasions of bed bugs, cockroaches, rodents or other problems, set up an appointment and property inspection with one of Ehrlich’s trained pest control specialists. If you want more information about bed bugs and healthcare facilities, be sure to visit our page and download our free white paper about “Bed Bugs in Healthcare Facilities”.
