Laundry
Exploring the evolution of care home laundries
Care home laundries come in all shapes and sizes, but all share the same goal of establishing a cost-effective, seamless, and hygienic operation. Mick Christian, training & development manager at Electrolux Professional UK & Ireland, explores how challenges facing staff have changed in a post-pandemic environment and shares his top tips for preparing laundries for a digital future
When looking to implement an efficient facilities management strategy, a care home’s on-premises laundry (OPL) forms an integral piece of the puzzle. Big or small, old or new, an OPL is the solution to a care home’s never-ending need for a steady stream of clean linen, staff uniforms, or even PPE.
It is hard to believe that we are now half a
decade on from the emergence of COVID-19, and it would be easy to suggest that the pandemic resulted in the introduction of a host of stringent hygiene requirements relevant to an OPL. The reality, however, is that total hygiene control has always been paramount in the care home environment, in the interest of preventing cross- contamination and the subsequent spread of disease and bacteria, such as influenza, MRSA, and C. diff.
Care homes built following the pandemic have reacted by ramping up laundry operations to incorporate the latest equipment, such as barrier washers and commercial ironers, in a move to create a sterile and productive environment geared towards long-term cost and energy savings. Yet it is just as important to consider the homes that were here long before the pandemic, where space and budgetary restrictions often make opting for such commercial-grade equipment impossible. Before exploring pain points – many of which are relevant to both applications – what does a typical care home laundry look like? Specifically, how are new build setups evolving?
A new era of care home laundries? Visit any care home laundry, and you are guaranteed to find at least three appliances: a washer, a dryer, and an ironer. These
March 2025
www.thecarehomeenvironment.com
machines can vary greatly depending on the size of a business’s operation, from barrier washers to high-spin washers and vented dryers to heat pump dryers. Traditionally, the only requirement of such machines was to ensure consistent hygiene standards. With many care homes now working to a restricted budget, they must now maximise laundry efficiency to save money, as well as time and energy. Barrier washers have long played a vital
role in specialist, high-capacity laundries where contamination must be avoided, and they are becoming increasingly popular in new build care homes across the nation. Unlike a standard front-load domestic or commercial appliance that would typically
Total hygiene control has always been paramount in the care home environment
be found in older care homes, barrier washers feature a dedicated loading point for dirty laundry, with the unloading point located on the reverse of the machine. Care home laundries are also beginning to realise the potential of heat pump drying technology. While they are typically associated with lower running costs than vented dryers powered by gas or electricity, heat pump dryers have historically been unable to deliver comparable cycle times. The latest equipment has made significant headway in overcoming this barrier, however.
Efficient and reliable ironing equipment is another integral aspect of any smooth laundry operation. Delivering perfectly ironed laundry in accordance with stringent hygiene standards can be challenging. To tackle this, care homes are incorporating commercial-grade ironing equipment, available in a variety of different configurations, to reduce strain on staff and
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