Medical laundry shops shoulder the special and important responsibility for cleaning various fabrics, such as hospital work uniforms, patient gowns, surgical gowns, bed sheets, quilts, and other fabrics. These fabrics were contaminated with various stains, including human body stains, blood stains, food oil stains, urine stains, feces, medicine stains, etc. The service targets involve adults, children, and infants, and other groups. Different groups have different levels of requirements for washing quality. Therefore, hospital fabric washing is a complex and ever-improving eternal topic.
With the development of the medical laundry socialization revolution, many third-party professional medical fabric washing centers have emerged. They target hospitals and compete based on the market. In recent years, they have made achievements in the laundry equipment innovation, working environment, management level, service consciousness, and so on. At the same time, all hospitals have higher requirements for the washing quality, which poses higher challenges for laundry practitioners.
Classification and Characteristics of the Medical Textiles
Precise classification is the foundation of ensuring the washing quality of the medical textiles. Different types of textiles have different characteristics and need targeted washing solutions.
❑ Fabrics
● Pure cotton fabrics:
Most of the hospital gowns, surgical gowns, bed sheets, and quilts are made of pure cotton. The advantage of this kind of textile is that it is alkali-resistant and heat-resistant. But its drawback is also obvious. It easily has wrinkles, and this should be especially paid attention to during the washing process and the post-wash finishing process.
● Blended chemical fibers:
Most medical lab coats belong to this kind. The washing temperature should not be too high, and the rinsing must be complete. Otherwise, the white gowns will easily turn yellow or become discolored, which has a bad impact on the appearance of the textiles and their service life.
❑ Color
They can be divided into three categories: white, light colors, and dark colors. If people don’t sort the textiles with different colors, they may face problems like color bleeding and color mixing, which damage the beauty of the textiles.
❑ Level of dirt
● There are generally three levels. When washing textiles with different levels of dirt, people should adjust the washing time, detergent dosage, and other parameters to achieve the ideal washing effect.
❑ Categories of medical textiles for hospitals
Garment, surgical gowns, hospital gowns, bed sheets, quilts…
Every kind of textile has different usage scenarios and different types of stains, so the washing methods should also be focused on accordingly.
As a result, when washing the medical textiles, people must carefully classify and sort the linen, and wash the linen according to the principle of washing from light to deep and in different grades, so that they can effectively avoid the dye bleeding and contamination, and ensure the washing quality.
Precautions for Washing Medical Textiles
❑ White gown
Medical lab coats are an important piece of clothing for the hospital staff in their daily work. Their whiteness, cleanliness, and tidiness directly show the image of the hospital. The common stained areas are cuffs and collars. The front of the white gown is also contaminated with medical stains. People should pay attention to the following points.
● Sorting and item removal
There are usually ballpoint pens, signature pens, lipsticks, toilet paper, and other items in the pockets of medical staff’s lab coats. Once these items are mixed in the washing machines, they may cause the contamination of the whole drum of the washing machines and increase the washing difficulty and costs.
● Loading capacity
To increase the friction when washing medical lab coats, the loading volume should not be too full. The suitable loading volume should be 2/3.
● Add a little strong medical laundry detergent in the pretreatment process to help remove solid dirt and prepare for the subsequent main wash.
● Adopt a low water level during main wash→ wash for 20 minutes at a temperature of 40℃-60℃ → high-temperature washing.
● If there is enough time, people can pre-treat the collar and cuffs of the lab coat with a collar cleaner in advance. This helps save usage of detergents during the main wash process and reduces the main wash duration.
● Colorful coats should be washed separately according to colors to avoid color fading and color bleeding. Adding oxygen bleaching powder can realize the effects of removing color stains and enhancing brightness and vividness. However, when people use oxygen bleaching powder, the temperature must be above 60℃, and the pH value of the washing solution should be above 8.5 to make the function better.
❑ Surgical gowns
The main stains on surgical gowns are bloodstains and medicine stains. Bloodstains belong to protein-based stains and should not be exposed to high temperatures. Once facing high temperatures, bloodstains will seep into the fabric fibers and solidify and deform. At that time, it will be very difficult to remove them with ordinary washing methods. As a result, people should pay attention to the following points.
● Use a low-temperature medium water level to do multiple pre-washes until no bloody water appears. Reduce the residue of blood stains on the fabric as much as possible.
● Add blood-stain-removing laundry detergent → wash at a temperature not exceeding 60°C for 30 minutes → add a disinfectant → do a high-temperature wash.
This method not only removes stains but also disinfects.
● If time permits, people can put surgical gowns in a container and soak them in the water solution of bloodstain removal laundry detergent for some time. After that, the normal washing process can be done. This method can effectively remove stains.
● Once bloodstains solidify, people can only use chlorine bleach and oxygen bleach for oxidation and decolorization. After that, a neutralization and iron-removal treatment should be done to restore the fabric’s whiteness.
❑ Hospital gowns
Hospital gowns are usually worn close to the skin. After washing, it is best to neutralize with acid, then add fabric softener. This can help make hospital gowns more comfortable and softer, and reduce irritation to the patients’ skin.
❑ Bed sheets and bedding
The main stains on bed sheets and bedding are human secretions, food oil stains, and medicine stains. When washing, it is best to use a graded washing method from low temperature to high temperature. At the same time, adding an appropriate amount of oil-emulsifying agent can help remove oil stains and make the bed sheets and bedding cleaner.
❑ Carefully use sodium hypochlorite bleach disinfectant
Sodium hypochlorite has been used in hospital laundry for many years due to its effective disinfection, bleaching properties, and low cost. However, it is highly corrosive to fabrics and causes severe discoloration. This will increase the rate of fabric condemnation. Colored garments may also have significant fading. Therefore, people should use it with caution.
● When using sodium hypochlorite, dilute it with water at least tenfold.
Add it to the washing machine while the machine is running to avoid localized high concentrations from damaging fabrics.
● It is best not to use sodium hypochlorite for bleaching and disinfecting colored garments to prevent decoloration and so on.
● Some medications react with chlorine-containing bleaches and cause oxidative discoloration that forms brown stains. These stains get trapped in fabric fibers and are difficult to remove. Thus, it is recommended to add chlorine-containing bleach disinfectants after a period of washing.
During washing, there may be unremoved local stains such as yellow marks, medicine stains, old blood stains, and rust stains. Once these stains are found, they should be treated promptly. Local re-washing using chemical, oxidation, or reduction methods can completely remove such stains before garments leave the laundry factory, ensuring washing quality.
Conclusion
Medical textiles laundry is a complicated, systematic program including many links from collection and dispatch to water supply, steam supply, sorting, washing, disinfection, arrangement, storage, and transportation in the laundry factory. If people want to wash clothes well and improve the washing quality, they need close cooperation and coordination, and scientific management. For medical textiles laundry industry practitioners, continuously summarizing experience and improving professional skills can meet the increasing laundry requirements of the hospitals and provide strong assurance for the normal medical work.
Post time: Sep-17-2025