Cover story – advertising feature
Why care home laundries are more than just machines
Debbie Jones, sales manager of WASHCO, explains the process of choosing and installing the correct laundry equipment for care homes
When you think of a care home laundry, the equipment is often the first thing that springs to mind. However, during my 26 years in the laundry industry, it has become clear that to help our customers have a successful laundry the equipment is just a small part of the equation.
There are often competing priorities, physical limitations and different budget requirements that must be understood to deliver a successful laundry. My first question is always, “If you had a wishlist, what would you wish for?”. From there, we help can work out what is possible. The wishlist question helps us understand
what the care home is trying to achieve. Is it just a like-for-like replacement or improved efficiencies? Has the care home grown and requires more throughput or is it about shorter working times? We also want to understand all the little niggles that can happen in a laundry that people get used to working around. Technologies are improving all the time and it might be, with just a few tweaks or a different layout, the whole laundry can work better.
This includes assessing what is being processed. Within care homes, personal items are often being cleaned so we want to
CARE HOME
ENVIRONMENT
Volume 7 Issue 1 January 2022
www.thecarehomeenvironment.com
Care home laundries:
more than just machines Vida Court – care home of the future Care England’s Professor Martin Green on government policy
support the laundry in finding the best way to launder these items successfully without causing any damage.
It is also crucial to understand the space, what can physically fit and the utilities available. Reviewing the utilities allows us to work with our customers and understand if we can help make a saving to operational costs, e.g. by utilising new equipment technology or switching to a different heat source such as a heat pump dryer. Most importantly of all, it is our job to help care homes be confident that they are Gas Safe, able to work to HTM01-04 guidance and are using WRAS 5 approved equipment. An example of how this approach can be successful is WASHCO’s work with care home group BestCare.
Case study: Ellesmere House, Shropshire After experiencing unsatisfactory results from their current laundry equipment and with an impractical layout disrupting efficiency, BestCare approached WASHCO to upgrade and reconfigure their small on- premise laundry facility at Ellesmere House, a 28-bed care home in Shropshire. With efficiency and reliability at the top of their wish list, WASHCO recommended the Miele PW413 13kg washing machine, the Miele PT8303 slimline gas dryer and Stirovap steam ironing table. The Miele Professional machines achieve excellent results while offering short cycles and great energy efficiency for the home.
Improving laundry layout With workflow a key component in managing infection control, WASHCO
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www.thecarehomeenvironment.com January 2022
THE
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