How Hygienic Laundry Practices Control Infection

By duxfordsixstarhotelequipment Articles 0 Comments

How Hygienic Laundry Practices Control Infection

Coronavirus can survive on surfaces for hours to days and proper hygiene must be maintained to avoid contact with the virus.

The process used by healthcare industries to do their laundry should be proven to protect clients and employees from virus contact. Laundry services are provided by hotels, hospitals, and nursing homes for items such as uniforms, bed linens, surgical gowns, patient clothing, and cleaning supplies.

Keeping dirty laundry can spread germs and bacteria, so clean and dirty linen must be appropriately handled.

Here is a guide on hygienic laundry practices

Handling and Sorting Dirty Linen

When transferring soiled linens, a trolley with up to four bags should be used, and pre-sorting the linen into the collection trolly system is effective; here is a recommendation for sorting linen:

Flatwork consists of bedsheets and pillowcases.
Personals- garments
Terry toweling- Bath towels, robes, face cloths, bath mats.
Infectious garments must be isolated and washed separately.

The primary purpose of sorting is to identify linen types for perfect wash results. Using coloured bags will make it easier to differentiate the linen types.

Linen should be collected separately.
Do not keep dirty linen for an extended period.
Dirty linen should never be mixed with clean linen.

Washing Guidelines

Thermal disinfection of the soiled linen should be done by maintaining a temperature of 650c for ten minutes and 710c for three minutes.

Sorting the linens correctly will offer a constant load for finishing, thereby speeding up the process.

The laundry procedure should be actively monitored, temperature, chemicals used, and washing program should all be monitored.

Ensure you load the washer correctly
Ensure you decontaminate the linen properly
Ensure you wash the linen with a suitable program
Ensure you use protective measures when washing (gloves, protective garments)

Barrier laundry, in which linens are completely washed before being transferred to the clean side, ensures that soiled linen does not mix with clean linen and that microorganisms are not transferred.

Wet washed linen should not be stored for too long
Washed linen should not be placed in unsuitable places
Ensure cross-contamination is minimized during laundry
Ensure you use the right equipment when transferring washed linen for drying.

Drying and Finishing

Loading the washer-extractor with consistent load size and linen type makes drying easy. Sorting the sheets, table linen, and pillowcase before ironing is also recommended. Linens that are processed through heated roll irons should not be starched.

The correct temperature and contact times must be strictly adhered to
The filling ratio in the drying process should not be exceeded
Avoid too much contact with the clean linen

Laundry Safety and Maintenance

The following must be confirmed before leaving the laundry;

The laundry equipment has stopped working
The floor is dry
The dryer is unloaded
The linens are folded and stored properly
The machines must regularly undergo preventive maintenance

www.sixstarhotelequipment.com.au supplies modern hotel laundry trolleys.