In this article, we will analyze the washing plus rental measures of the hospital linen.
Details of the Project
The cooperation between the laundry company and the hospital involves the “washing+rental” model for medical linen. The project includes the rental, washing, collection, delivery, mending, folding, ironing, and 24-hour uninterrupted service of all medical linen in the hospital.
According to the number of beds in every department provided by the hospital, the laundry company provides bed sheets, duvet covers, and pillowcases for each bed at a ratio of 1:3 (1:1.5 provided by the hospital and 1:1.5 provided by the laundry company), and other dressings at a ratio of 1:4
For large sheets, quilt covers, and pillowcases, the washing and rental fee is charged based on the actual number of occupied beds. (calculated per bed per day) For other linens, the rental fee and washing fee are charged based on the actual usage volume.
Strict Collection and Delivery
The laundry company sends employees to the hospitals. The collection and delivery team should be 8 to 9 people. They should strictly obey the collection and delivery system. Different collecting bags should be used to store different types of linen. The collecting bags should remain sealed until the linen is washed. According to the regulated time and passage, the team from the laundry company should collect the dirty linen from each clinical department and send clean linen back.
Layout of the Laundry Company
The overall layout of the laundry company complies with the infection regulation. The passage for dirty linen is separated from the clean linen passage. The plant is specifically divided into the following areas:
- The sorting area for contaminated linen.
- The soaking and washing area for positive linen, which has a risk of biological contamination.
- The washing area for the contaminated linen from the beds of the general patients.
- Special washing area for dressing in the operating room.
- Washing area for heavily soiled linen.
- Washing area for lightly contaminated items. ( medical staff supplies, infant supplies, and linen, which need to be re-washed)
- Clean area for drying, ironing, folding, pressing, and mending.
The workflow is reasonable, and linen does not cross or flow backward from the dirty linen zone to the clean linen zone.
Steps for Handling Soiled Linen
After the soiled linen is sent to the laundry company, people do the following steps.
● The linen in a specially marked yellow bag should be soaked in a specially isolated soaking pool for disinfection. Then, the linen should be washed by a barrier washer. Linen enters the barrier washer from the front door and leaves the barrier washer from the back door.
● The linen without obvious stains should be placed in the washing zone for normal contaminated linen and washed by the first tunnel washer. The operating room linen should be washed by the second tunnel washer. After the main wash process, the pre-set hydrogen peroxide disinfection program will do a regular disinfection and cleaning of the linen.
● After sorting, the linen with obvious blood, body fluids, secretions, excretions, and so on should be put in the barrier washer, which is especially designed for washing the heavily soiled linen.
● The infant supplies, medical staff uniforms, and on-call room bedding should be washed in their respective barrier washers in the lightly contaminated area.
● The dirty linen zone and clean linen zone both have changing rooms for staff and rest areas.
● There are special steam disinfection rooms which are set up in dirty linen areas to disinfect each stainless steel vehicle being transported.
● Each zone has a disinfection soaking pool and UV disinfection lamps. The top of every transporting vehicle is also equipped with UV lamps.
● Used collecting bags should enter the corresponding disinfection washing procedures together with linen every day.
All the disinfection procedures in the workflow have been done and recorded by designated people.
The pH value of the clean linen should be randomly inspected and recorded at least six times a day.
All microbial indicators should be prepared to be tested by the health and epidemic prevention department at any time, and the results are regularly reported to the hospital. The hospital also has the right to do random checks and tests on the linen washed by the laundry company and the laundry sites.
These hardware facilities and software measures all ensure that the entire washing process complies with the relevant national document requirements.
Complete Regulations and Emergency Response Plans
The laundry company establishes many rules and regulations:
Service standards for linen warehouses.
Norms for the etiquette and polite language of warehouse staff.
Attendance systems for staff.
Job responsibilities assessment details for linen warehouse managers.
Warehouse work processes.
Classified collection.
Management of clean fabric storage.
Environmental hygiene and cleaning systems…
The laundry company should strengthen training for its staff to develop their self-awareness and provide pre-job training to equip them with the skills necessary for washing and disinfection, as well as knowledge of disinfection management and infection control. The staff should also do self-protection and use the seven-step washing method. This can help keep increasing the ability of the staff.
Unified Management
After adopting the new mode of renting and washing medical linen, all bedding and garments are managed uniformly and are not divided into different departments.
Medical Linen Scrapping System
● All departments of the hospital should check the delivered linen. If the medical linen has more than three damaged patches, the linen should be collected and scrapped by the laundry company.
● If the linen has too many stubborn stains and has no obvious effect after multiple washings, it should be scrapped by the hotels or be used in another way.
● If the linen is not cleaned thoroughly by the laundry company and is returned for re-washing, the hospital should not be charged when the linen returns to be washed.
● If the linen cannot be used normally or restored due to washing, transportation, or other reasons, the laundry company must compensate the hospitals according to the price of the linen.
● The reserve quantity of linen for turnover should always be maintained to ensure the normal operation of linen throughout the hospital.
Risk Control and Precautions
Starting from the day when the laundry company began to wash medical linen from the hospital, the hospital must strengthen the control and prevention of risk points in the use of linen, establish a complete monitoring method, require the clinical staff to correctly use the linen according to the purposes, and avoid the abuse of linen. This greatly makes use of the linen’s value and saves on the linen costs.
Monthly Evaluation
The hospital should do a monthly survey of the quality satisfaction of the washing service. A comprehensive assessment score of 90 or above is considered qualified.
The hospital should also entrust the third-party organization with the annual washing service quality assessment. The monthly evaluation and the year-end comprehensive evaluation results are linked to the washing service fee, and give rewards and punishments according to the actual results. This can ensure the quality of the washing and the quality of rental linen.
Post time: Sep-25-2025