United Kingdom
Mark Drinkall, Christeyn's national sales manager for professional hygiene, reminds us of good practices in nursing home laundry and stresses that there will never be a more critical time to ensure good practice in on-site laundries (OPL).
Drinkall writes:
Operating safe, efficient, and effective laundry is as important as operating a safe, efficient, and effective kitchen in any nursing home, never more than in the current circumstances.
Every step of the process, from collecting dirty laundry from a bedroom to returning clean, hygienic laundry to that bedroom, should be organized and controlled.
Christeyns has supported nursing homes through our trustworthy partners for many years and uses expertise in application and practical training to pass on our wealth of experience in laundry technology and disinfection. As the nursing industry is dealing with one of its most challenging phases to date, it is crucial that best practice in all aspects of nursing home operations is consistently followed every day and in every process.
Employee: It is recommended that the on-site staff wear uniforms instead of traveling from home and that the uniforms are laundered to the appropriate standard in the controlled area of the on-site laundry. However, it is recognized that this may not be possible in all households. All practical steps must be taken to ensure that staff uniforms are hygienic during use and pose no risk of contamination inside or outside the home.
All employees should wear suitable PPE when handling laundry, especially dirty or infected laundry, and when handling laundry chemicals. Follow the instructions of the legal authorities and the packaging of the chemicals.
Your machine and / or chemical supplier should be happy to provide training to ensure that employees know how to get the most out of the equipment, promote efficiency, and ensure that safety standards are met.
Rooms: Make sure all laundry that is dirty, infected, or suspected is put in a soluble red bag and then sealed in an impervious bag before leaving the bedroom. It should be transported directly to the laundry. Solids should be removed from the laundry before adding to the soluble bag.
Keep clean and dirty laundry separate and make sure that no infection can be spread from dirty to clean laundry, hand washing and, if necessary, use of clean PPE.
Transport and Storage: Provide separate storage and transportation arrangements for clean and used laundry. Make sure that they are cleaned regularly.
Housekeeping in the laundry: Keep the machines, floors, trolleys and surfaces clean.
If a water softener is used, make sure that it works properly. Hard water creates problems and damages the washing machines over time.
Have separate containers or trolleys ready for dirty and clean laundry.
Do not open red bags before they get into the washing machine.
Never store or leave laundry on the floor, it is unsanitary and leads to stains on the footprint that cannot be removed.
Report errors to machines immediately.
Never leave hot laundry unattended or overnight, as this can cause a fire. Make sure the laundry is below body temperature before leaving it unattended.
Treat and store clean laundry hygienically.
Dosing systems: Make sure that the metering pumps are working. Report errors immediately.
Are the lights or the screen on, do they work every time?
Are there any leaks, do the drums run out, do they need to be replaced, is the right drum on the right pipe? Check the drums daily.
Always wear gloves and eye protection when handling chemicals. Never mix chemicals.
Make sure you have an adequate supply of all laundry chemicals to avoid the risk of leakage. Even if a chemical runs out, it negatively affects the washing results.
Washers: Do not overload or underload the washing machine or dryer significantly. This leads to result problems and can damage the machines.
Make sure that the appropriate washing method and dosage program is selected, and pay particular attention that dirty and infected laundry is processed in a disinfection program.
If possible, wash dark and light objects separately.
Do not try to shorten a washing process by advancing the machine. This affects the results and can cause skin irritation for employees or customers.
Use a pre-wash if necessary. Choose a decolorization process for dyed linen.
Never use fabric softener for kylies or microfibers. Never use starch and conditioner in the same process.
dryer: If possible, load to the nominal capacity of the dryer. Do not overload as this will reduce efficiency.
If necessary, choose a cooling option, especially for polycottons.
Never too dry linen, this leads to static charges, sells conditioner perfume and wastes energy.
Do not leave dried laundry in the dryer at any time as this is a fire hazard.
When you take the laundry out of the dryer, straighten and fold it immediately and while it is still warm. This leads to a better finish and reduces the need for ironing.
Clean the lint trap daily as this can lead to a fire hazard.
Running an efficient and effective laundry on site can give nursing homes security and a seamless supply of clean, hygienic laundry. However, it has to be managed well according to strict guidelines and with employees who are up to date and know about the important role they play in the safety and health of all people.
