Legal and technical classification
In a care facility, recommendations, laws, private lists and company plans are particularly often confused. Here the distinction is not a formality; it determines what is actually binding.
- Statutory duty: hygiene plan under § 36 IfSG (German Infection Protection Act)
- A care facility must draw up a hygiene plan. This document sets out the agents used, the concentrations, the contact times, agent rotation, colour coding of cloths, the sequence of areas and the procedure during outbreaks. We work within it: the house's standard applies, and we supply the evidence that goes with it.
- Recommendation, not a law: RKI recommendations
- The recommendations of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) are a professional benchmark and feed into the hygiene plan. They are not, however, a legal norm. What is binding for the facility is above all its own duty under § 36 IfSG, the requirements of biological agents legislation with the associated TRBA 250, and orders issued by the competent authority.
- Product list, not a company seal: VAH list
- The VAH list concerns disinfectants, not companies: products with a declared spectrum of activity and a stated contact time are tested and listed. A cleaning company is not VAH-listed. What matters for use is that the agent matches the spectrum of requirements set by your hygiene plan, and that contact time and concentration are observed.
- Boundary: disinfection is part of the service, not a separate item
- Surface disinfection with an agreed spectrum of activity and documented contact time is part of the routine cleaning service within the facility's own hygiene plan. We do not provide it as a separate, named service. The choice and permissibility of the agents is decided by the facility or by the hygiene commission.
- Company requirement: the room is a home
- Residents' rooms are private spaces: knock and wait, do not move personal items, throw nothing away, sort nothing, and leave photographs, devotional objects and personal furniture untouched. That is the real quality question in this industry – and the point at which external staff most often cause offence.
- No certification by the service provider
- We document the measures carried out. We are not a certification body and do not issue evidence that replaces an inspection of the facility. What is inspected is your house; our role is to supply the documents you need for that.
The rules named here describe requirements on how the work is carried out — they are not a certification held by BREREI. VDI and DIN standards are chargeable and were not available in full text; where a statement touches the standard in detail, this is noted in place.