INFECTION CONTROL | ELECTROLUX INFECTION PREVENTION
Here, Amanda Dufrane, Care Segment Manager at Electrolux Professional discusses the recent findings relating to laundry processes in the care sector, and how lapses in best practice could put residents at risk.
Given the vulnerability of care home residents, it is imperative that operators are fully aware of the importance of hygiene when it comes to both the handling and cleaning of laundry. However, one recent survey of the care sector revealed that over a quarter of UK care home staff do not feel their laundry is managed in a way which completely avoids contamination.
Laundry has often gone under the radar when it comes to hygienic best practice in the care sector. However, it is time to have an open and honest debate about how to best achieve complete hygiene transparency, to ensure that residents in the care industry are fully protected from the risk of infection through laundry.
With over 19,000 care homes in operation across the UK, it is up to the laundry industry to ensure all operators and managers are fully aware of how to guarantee their residents are protected from the health risks which can result from an improperly managed laundry.
Surveying the Scene To help raise awareness of the current strains on the care sector, Electrolux Professional conducted a survey on the collective attitudes of care workers from both the public and private sectors towards how cleanliness and hygiene are managed through their laundry processes.
Startlingly, one of the key findings to emerge from the survey was that over 25% of UK care home staff do not feel their laundry is managed in a way which completely avoids contamination.
What’s more, the survey also found that nearly a third believe staff at their care facility do not fully understand the difference between visual and hygienic cleanliness. 5% of the survey’s respondents even recalled having knowingly
- 36 -
experienced an instance where an infection outbreak could be traceable to laundry procedures.
The survey highlighted that a third of operators do not feel their laundry system is managed in a way which completely avoids contamination, compared to just 25% of managers. Meanwhile, just 14% of managers see contamination through linen as their prime concern when managing cleanliness, compared to 24% of those operating the equipment.
Tackling the Truth The findings paint a clear picture that there are inconsistent attitudes across the care sector. Electrolux has produced Infection Prevention an eight-step guide to laundry cycle management which ensures every element of the laundry cycle journey, is monitored to reduce the risk of contamination.
This RABC-based system offers guidance on some of the processes which can be forgotten by operators, including the proper collection and transportation of dirty laundry via dedicated routes, and the correct storing of clean linen to protect it from recontamination by micro-organisms. Crucially, the concept can be applied to
traditional laundry operations as well as those with a barrier system.
In order to directly address the evident misconceptions around Laundry Cycle Management best practice, Electrolux Professional will be hosting a live debate on Infection Prevention with industry experts on 16th June.
Final thoughts Ultimately, the most important thing to bear in mind is to constantly keep laundry front of mind. We would urge operators to ask themselves - is every stage of the process carefully considered and free from infection or contamination risks; and, ultimately, are we taking this seriously?
Whilst there isn’t really a quick-fix solution to achieving an effective and hygienic laundry process, getting the right equipment will go a long way. However, without backing up a purchase with in-depth training so as to educate and ingrain a proper understanding of why best practice procedures need to be adopted, care homes risk both endangering residents and undermining significant capital investment, as there will be no guarantee the system will provide complete hygienic cleanliness.
We hope that by bringing the Infection Prevention debate to the public’s attention through our specially- developed advisory and education tools, we can truly demystify any misconceptions surrounding the safe handling of both dirty and clean laundry, and help instil the befits of adopting Laundry Cycle Management best practice among the nation’s care home operators and managers.
A copy of Electrolux Professional’s report, Infection Prevention; a report on the important role of laundry cycle management in UK care homes, can be downloaded from the website.
www.electrolux.co.uk/professional www.tomorrowscare.co.uk
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68
