Are You Missing These High-Touch Hotspots in Your Disinfection Process?
When did you last disinfect your office elevator buttons? Or the door panel right next to the handle where everyone pushes to open it? If you’re like most business owners, these high-touch surfaces probably didn’t make your cleaning checklist.
Most workplace disinfection processes focus on the obvious: kitchen counters, bathroom sinks, and visible spills. Meanwhile, the environmental surfaces that get touched hundreds of times a day go completely ignored.
Research from the National Institutes of Health shows that viruses like COVID-19 can survive on plastic and stainless steel surfaces for up to three days, turning contaminated surfaces into hotspots for spreading infection in healthcare environments and offices alike.
This guide breaks down the most commonly missed high touch surfaces, explains why standard disinfection procedures fall short, and shows you how to build a strategy that actually protects your team’s health.
Why Most Cleaning Routines Miss the Mark
Your in-house staff means well, but they’re not trained disinfection specialists. They often aim to finish the cleaning process quickly and default to necessarily clean dirty surfaces rather than disinfecting the areas most likely to cause health care associated infections.
This often looks like wiping kitchen counters and tossing trash, yet skipping shared devices, light switches, or touch screens.
A lot of times, if you’re DIYing your cleaning routine and you have your staff doing it, they do miss a lot of high-touch points because they want to get in and get out. This looks like they’re just cleaning the countertops in the kitchen, just cleaning the countertops in the bathroom, and just throwing their trash.
The issue isn’t laziness; it’s lack of training, proper cleaning agents, and awareness of infection control protocols. Most DIY efforts skip manual cleaning techniques, and instead of cleaning for health, they’re cleaning for appearance.
Without proper personal protective equipment, a dedicated checklist, or knowledge of manufacturers instructions, teams may even spread pathogens during routine tasks.
What Counts as a High-Touch Hotspot?
High touch surfaces are areas touched frequently by multiple people. Without regular surface disinfection, they quickly become sources of microbial contamination.
Entry Points and Shared Surfaces
Think door handles, light switches, and keypad entry systems. These inanimate objects receive frequent direct contact, especially in hospital settings and offices. Elevator buttons, bed rails, and mailbox handles are prime areas to disinfect high touch surfaces thoroughly.
Workstations
Phone receivers, keyboards, and mice accumulate oils and skin cells, creating ideal environments for bacterial spores and most vegetative bacteria. Shared patient care items, blood pressure cuffs, and medical instruments in healthcare settings are even more vulnerable.
Communal Areas
Breakrooms see daily use and inconsistent environmental cleaning. Microwave buttons, sodium hypochlorite-sensitive surfaces, and drinking water stations often get skipped. Items like coffee machines, fridge handles, and cabinet knobs require both adequate cleaning and chemical disinfection.
Why Your Disinfectant Might Not Be Working
The Wrong Cleaning Product
Many workplaces use general-purpose cleaners that aren’t approved hospital disinfectants. While they make things look clean, they fail to kill bacteria or remove viruses effectively—especially from internal surfaces or dirty surfaces exposed to body fluids or other body fluids.
Approved chemical disinfectants such as hydrogen peroxide, quaternary ammonium compounds, or sodium hypochlorite should be used to ensure safe results in health care facilities.
The Right Product, Wrong Process
The EPA maintains List N, a database of disinfectants proven effective against SARS-CoV-2 and other pathogens. Products not on this list might clean surfaces but won’t eliminate disease-causing microorganisms. If a disinfectant requires 10 minutes of dwell time, and you wipe it off in 30 seconds, you’re not disinfecting—you’re just moving germs around.
Steam sterilization, dry heat, and UV light may be appropriate for surgical instruments, terminal cleaning, or deep cleaning in patient rooms or a hospital setting.
Always follow proper use and review shelf life and manufacturers instructions for effective results.
How Professionals Handle Disinfection Differently
Professional teams use hospital disinfectants and high level disinfectants to meet stricter standards in environments like health care facilities.
They follow consistent disinfection procedures, using a step-by-step checklist to ensure environmental infection control. This includes attention to shared desks, touch screens, bed rails, and lesser-seen areas that require low level disinfection or high level disinfection, depending on exposure risks.
They make sure that every single time, those high-touch points are done: elevator buttons, door handles, door panels, phone handles. If it’s a shared workspace, they take care of the area not only in front of their monitor and computer or where their setup is—but the adjacent areas, too, that go into the coworker’s space
They also train staff on how to clean and disinfect, ensuring surfaces are not only wiped down but treated to fully remove germs and prevent contamination.
From manual cleaning of high-traffic areas to the decontamination process for medical instruments, professionals rely on systems built for efficiency and safety.
A Strategic Approach to Disinfection That Works
1. Audit Your Space
Walk through every zone of your healthcare facility or office. Include environmental surfaces like door hardware, intact skin contact zones, and shared patient care items.
Identify contaminated surfaces that might be missed during daily cleanings and note whether they require low level disinfectants or high level disinfection.
2. Choose the Right Products
Not all cleaning agents are the same. Choose EPA-registered chemical disinfectants appropriate for the healthcare environment and suited to clean inanimate objects safely and effectively.
Use stronger agents like hydrogen peroxide or quaternary ammonium compounds in most instances where you suspect microbial contamination.
3. Increase Frequency for High Touch Surfaces
Establish how often your team should clean and disinfect areas like light switches, door handles, or shared equipment. Some zones need cleaning multiple times daily.
High-traffic areas may require terminal cleaning protocols to ensure thorough pathogen removal.
4. Train Your Team or Hire Professionals
If using in-house staff, make sure they understand dwell time, product dilution, and contact precautions.
For complex areas like patient rooms, hospital settings, or facilities managing healthcare personnel, hiring a pro team trained in sterilization procedures and deep cleaning can help avoid costly errors.
How ZIA Building Maintenance Keeps High-Touch Surfaces Germ-Free
At ZIA Building Maintenance, we’ve been providing expert-level cleaning services in Albuquerque since 1989. Our specialists follow industry best practices and understand what it takes to maintain a safe, disinfected healthcare environment or commercial space.
We use EPA-approved hospital disinfectants, adhere to best practices for surface disinfection, and handle every area with care—whether it’s bed rails, door handles, or shared devices.
We go beyond routine cleaning surfaces and focus on pathogen elimination, infection risk reduction, and long-term protection from spreading infection.
Start Disinfecting Where It Actually Counts
Your cleaning routine isn’t effective if it skips high touch surfaces like door handles, light switches, and touch screens.
Professional-grade cleaning doesn’t just make things look clean—it kills pathogens, protects your people, and supports better disease control and infection control.
Ready to close the gaps in your current routine? Contact ZIA Building Maintenance today for a comprehensive evaluation and customized disinfection solution that keeps your space safe.