Education, Training, and Accreditation for your Healthcare Laundry
During any given hospital stay, patients spend most, if not all, of their time in bed. That means they are surrounded all day with hospital linens. From their gown to their sheets and blankets patients have more contact with these items than anything else in the hospital.
It is an understatement to say that laundered goods that come into contact with patients during a hospital stay must be clean and therefore unable to pass along any germs that can cause secondary or hospital acquired infections. Of course, a layperson that has no training or expertise in the area wouldn’t be expected to know this important information. Therefore, education and training become critical for those who work in a healthcare laundry.
Our grandmothers were right. They grew up during the depression and tried to teach us to repair what we had, to take care of our things. When our generation faced a worldwide pandemic we became much more intimately aware that we should take better care of our things, especially the things that stand between us and disease. Our front line workers have had to battle not having the correct PPE and clean isolation gowns to properly protect themselves due to our inability to provide disposable PPE fast enough and in the quantities that were needed. This is the main reason we need to maintain the ‘old school’ reusable gear, as it’s much more readily available. The time it takes to wash a set of PPE is much less than the time to produce it and reusable PPE is also much more sustainable. As we continue to battle Covid-19 and other emerging diseases this shortage could last for years to come according to the Kaiser Foundation. Worse, reuse of disposable PPE became commonplace during the pandemic, possibly contributing to disease spread. The CDC has published guidelines for this as well, even though reuse is against best practice. Using a combination of washable and disposable PPE should help with the shortfall and keep our front line workers safe.
During the wash process, laundry chemicals are introduced to aid in the removal of stains, oils, and other contaminants found in the goods. Under normal circumstances, the chemicals used in the wash process are properly dosed and adequately rinsed. If not managed properly, the chemicals can cause damage to the goods and shorten their service life. Here are some simple things to watch out for in your commercial laundry process that can reduce the lifespan of your textiles:
We all know that tumble dryers aren’t particularly gentle, but along with the tumbling action, there are other dangers lurking in the dryer. Over drying can damage or shrink fabrics, and a moisture sensor minimizes that possibility. Commercial Laundry dryers equipped with a moisture sensor can save up to 15% on energy costs over standard timed drying by measuring the remaining water left in the goods, and stopping the drying process when they are dry.
There are quite a few worthwhile benefits of moisture sensing:
Great blog post from our friends at DECC. If you’re processing healthcare laundry, you may be experiencing the very problem that they can help you solve: melted plastic inside the dryers. Take a look for more information from our friend Randy at DECC:
