FEATURE
develop superior infection prevention programs. So what do ASC managers need
to know when they select a company to provide laundry and linen servic- es? First and foremost, they should ensure that the commercial laundry under consideration is accredited by the Healthcare Laundry Accredita- tion Council (HLAC), a nonprofit or- ganization formed for the purpose of inspecting and accrediting laundries processing health care textiles for hos- pitals, ASCs, nursing homes and other health care facilities.
Caption to come. Lenia adi as eum explabore, aut. Pari aut quat estectur?
Raising the Bar in Health Care Laundry Standards and Safety
Accredited commercial services can play an important role in infection prevention and patient and staff safety. BY P.J. DEMPSEY
US hospitals, ASCs and other health care facilities generate more than five billion pounds of soiled linen every year, accord-
ing to a June 2003 report “Guidelines for Environmental
Infection Control
in Health-Care Facilities” issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). A November 2008 article in American Laundry News in- dicates that laundry is one of the most frequently outsourced services for these health care providers.
Commercial laundries that process
huge wash loads using large washing, drying and finishing equipment can improve laundry efficiencies for health care providers. On a per piece basis,
industry experts estimate that these savings could be one-third to one- half of the energy requirement of a small on-premise laundry and one- fourth to one-third of the water need- ed. Along with the cost savings that it offers, the bulk processing helps to contribute to a more sustainable, cleaner environment. Health care facility managers, quite
rightly, are concerned about how com- mercial laundries manage quality con- trol, infection control and other safety issues. An increased focus on reduc- ing the rate of health care acquired infections (HAIs) has also generated increased scrutiny and regulation of laundry and linen service providers and put pressure on these suppliers to
26 ASC FOCUS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2013
HLAC Accreditation Accreditation from HLAC provides assurance that health care textiles are being processed by a company that ad- heres to the required standards, includ- ing those established by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Ac- creditation is voluntary. HLAC’s comprehensive set of stan-
dards, available at
www.hlacnet.org/ standards.php, incorporate these and additional stringent requirements for health care linen processing that ad- dress proper techniques for washing and extraction, drying, finishing, qual- ity control, packaging, storage and de- livery to the health care facility. They ensure that health care textiles pro- cessed at an HLAC-accredited laundry plant carry negligible risk to health care workers and patients. Among the many quality control and infection control procedures man- dated for HLAC accreditation is func- tional separation between clean and soiled linens during every phase of pro- cessing. Functional separation ensures that potential airborne contaminants do not enter the clean linen processing area. Other policies and procedures
The advice and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent official Ambulatory Surgery Center Association policy or opinion.
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