Hospitals have a duty to maintain the highest standards of hygiene and cleanliness. Cleanliness at hospitals begins with making sure that the bed and bathroom linen and the uniforms of the hospital staff and patients are clean. Dirty bed sheets, grimy uniforms, and stained towels spread infection among patients. It is of the utmost importance to wash and clean the bed and bathroom linen at hospitals on time to ensure the safety of the patients. However, the hospital owner can’t keep launderers on payroll to wash a huge load of laundry. As such, most hospital owners reach out to laundry service centres like Hello Laundry for laundry work. Hello Laundry in London offers the best and most affordable hospital laundry services. Read on to know more about hospital laundry services right here.
Steps Of Doing Hospital Laundry Work:
Hospital laundry work is quite unlike regular laundry work. Professionals need to exercise extra care to make sure that the linen is clean and free from germs. The process of doing hospital laundry involves sorting the linen followed by stain treatment, washing, drying, sanitising, and disinfecting the linen. The steps involved in doing hospital laundry work are discussed in detail below:
#1 – Sorting of Hospital Laundry:
The laundry work begins with sorting the laundry items into different bags. The bed linen such as bedsheets, pillowcases, mattresses, and blankets is kept in one laundry bag. The bathroom linen that includes face towels, bath towels, and sponges is stored in another bag. The uniforms of the patients and hospital staff are sorted into separate bags. A colour-coded sorting is also done to ensure that there is no bleeding of colours during the washing stage.
#2 – Stain Treatment Of Hospital Wear:
For blood stains, soak the laundry in cold water. Use a tablespoon of detergent mixed with baking soda to scrub off the blood stain after the soak. Hospital laundry is often stained with urine, vomit, and faeces. Use a heavy-duty detergent soap mixed with half a cup of baking soda to remove the stains. Scrape off the solid particles that may be clinging to the linen with a disposable knife before washing. Use hot water and detergent soap for stains of ointments and oils. The use of oxy-bleach is recommended for liquid medicine stains.
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#3 – Washing Of Hospital Clothes:
Hospital laundry is best washed with hot water. The temperature of the water is set at around 158-176 degrees Fahrenheit for washing hospital linen and clothes. Hot water helps in fighting bad odour and eliminating bacteria and other germs. Laundromats often use an eco-friendly ozone environment to do away with stubborn germs such as E. coli and coliforms.
#4 – Drying Of Hospital Garments:
Commercial laundromats use tumble dryers to dry the hospital laundry. The soaked hospital laundry is exposed to a high temperature for at least half an hour for drying. The high heat also helps in disinfecting the clothes and linen.
#5 – Sanitization Of Hospital Laundry:
It is important to sanitise the hospital laundry after the wash to make sure that there are no traces of germs. During the sanitization stage, the hospital laundry is subjected to wet heat and dry heat followed by ethylene oxide gases.
#6 – Disinfection Of Hospital Laundry:
Disinfection of hospital laundry takes place with the use of an oxidizer. Some professionals also use chlorine bleach, instead of ozone, along with detergent powder to wash hospital linen. It is important to clean and disinfect the washing machine after using it to clean hospital laundry.
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A Few Tips To Handle Hospital Laundry:
Hospital laundry work requires constant disinfection and sanitization at every stage of cleaning. Laundromats need to keep the following tips in mind for doing hospital laundry work:
- Laundry workers must wear PPE uniforms while handling hospital laundry. PPE uniforms prevent the spread of infection to the workers and make sure that they stay safe during the cleaning process. Launderers should also wear face masks, shields, gloves, and goggles while cleaning hospital linen.
- Wash the clothes with ozone treatment to eliminate germs. Ozone is more active than bleach and other chemicals that are generally used for disinfecting hospital laundry.
- Label the laundry bags that are for holding hospital linen to prevent workers from using the same bags for storing regular linen.
- Clean and sanitise the washer and dryer units regularly to prevent the breeding of microbes.
- Do not overload the washing machine with hospital laundry. Make sure that there is sufficient space in the washer for the load to swirl and tumble inside the machine during the washing and drying cycles.
- Avoid using fabric softeners while washing hospital laundry. If the linen seems too rough then one may use half a cup of plain white vinegar to soften the fabric.
Conclusion:
Doing hospital laundry work is quite complicated but laundry cleaning service centres can ease the complications for you. If you are the manager of a hospital then all that you need to do is delegate the hospital laundry work and focus on more important matters.
