healthcare textiles & laundry
By Gregory Gicewicz
Healthcare Linen Processing Starts With Soil-Sort Excellence
A high-quality soil sort is the first step in producing high quality , hygienically clean healthcare linens for infection prevention and patient safety .
Errors in the sort lead to successively more severe and more expensive problems downstream .
software engineering , the cost of detecting
In and fixing defects increases exponentially the farther they are discovered downstream . A bug found during the design phase is simple and inexpensive to fix . Conversely , a bug found by an end user in a finished system costs orders of magnitude more . The final consequences of downstream defects may even be injury or death as in the case of commercial aircraft or other mass transportation systems . The same principle holds true for the healthcare laundering process . A high-quality soil sort is the first step in producing high quality , hygienically clean healthcare linens for infection prevention and patient safety . Errors in the sort lead to successively more severe and more expensive problems downstream . In a worst case scenario , a bad sort may even lead to serious injury or death for hospital patients or laundry / healthcare workers .
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Soil Sort Purpose
Imagine a complex software system that was built with no design process . It would not work . Now imagine a healthcare laundry with no soil sort process . Imagine a laundry where received soiled goods are emptied together into a washer , unloaded then dried , then sent to the finish for folding and shipping to the hospital . Think of the abysmal quality of the final product . Visualize this contaminated linen touching sick patients . Picture the associated safety issues : Needles , controlled substances , garbage , food , and more all mixed together with the washed but unclean linen !
A quality soil sort operation prevents this condition . The purpose of the soil sort operation in any healthcare laundry is to separate received goods into categories so they can next be handled safely and appropriately . A modern large scale accredited healthcare laundry will generally have from 15 to 30 different soil-sort categories . These can be broken down into “ bulk ” linens , “ specialty ” items , and non-linen items . Examples of “ bulk ” linen items include bath blankets ; patient gowns ; sheets ; terry items ; pillowcases ; and incontinent pads . Examples of “ specialty ” items include surgical textiles ; cubicle curtains ; lifter slings ; microfiber cleaning devices ; lab coats ; scrubs ; and isolation gowns . Finally , examples of non-linen items include include garbage , sharps , pharmaceutical waste , surgical instruments , patient
personal items , pens , and staff personal items . Some non-linen items are harmless , but others must be handled carefully according to local and federal laws . For example , pharmaceutical waste received must follow a strict protocol ; see
http :// www . hlacnet . org / articles-reports-presentations for more information .
Safety
First and foremost , a quality soil sort operation is crucial for the safety of laundry staff , hospital patients , and healthcare providers . Laundry staff must be protected since they are handling contaminated healthcare linen and the dangerous items that may arrive with it . It is most critical to protect soil sorters with appropriate personal protective equipment ( PPE ). At a minimum , soil sort workers should wear fluid proof gowns , that extend below the knee ; fluid proof gloves ; face covers ; and eye protection . To protect hands from needles and sharps staff should wear puncture proof gloves outside of the fluid proof gloves . This PPE must be donned when entering the contaminated area and doffed when exiting . Please see
https :// www . hlacnet . org / standards for more information on sort PPE standards . Dangerous items such as needles and pharmaceuticals , that are not caught and segregated in the sort , may end up in finished garments worn by healthcare providers . All it takes is one nurse reaching into a scrub pocket with an unsorted exposed needle and the end result may be catastrophic !
Quality
High-quality , hygienically clean laundered healthcare textiles depend on a high-quality sort process . Wash process formulae are designed for different soil classifications . For example , a bath blanket wash formula is typically designed for a lighter soil load . This means the formula can run shorter and use less chemistry . Now let ’ s say a highly contaminated surgical