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5 Essential Care Tips for Hospital Linen
Hospital linen is one of the most important parts of your healthcare business, and not caring for it the right way can cause an endless array of problems. Cleaning and preserving your gowns, bed sheets, scrubs, towels, and other linen items with the utmost care is crucial to keeping both your staff and patients happy and healthy.
At CleanCare, we are committed to making hospital linen care less stressful and time-consuming. For over 90 years, we’ve dedicated ourselves to understanding our healthcare customers by listening, anticipating, and adapting to their needs. That’s why we’re here today to share five critical tips that will empower you and your team to care for hospital linen the right way.
1. Always Wear Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
The number one rule for caring for hospital linen is to always wear personal protective equipment, or PPE. It does not matter whether you are handling clean or soiled hospital linen. For the safety of yourself, your fellow healthcare professionals, and your patients, it is essential to wear tear-resistant rubber gloves.
If you are washing soiled linens by hand and there is a risk of splashing, then the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends wearing gowns or aprons, as well as goggles or a face shield for facial protection. Without personal protective equipment, you are not only putting yourself and others at risk, but you are also not caring for your hospital linen in the best way possible.
2. Have a Separate Area for Washing Soiled Linens
Having a separate washing area prevents cross-contamination between clean and dirty laundry, which can cause the spread of dirt, debris, and germs to healthy patients and staff. When cross-contamination occurs, the healthcare provider must spend additional time and money to purchase new hospital linen. This can add up over time and reduces the healthcare provider’s ability to focus on patient care.
At CleanCare, we make every effort to ensure our washed linens stay free of germs and harmful microbes until they are in your hands. Our team dedicates itself to adhering to all safety and quality control standards and being the most reliable healthcare linen service provider around.
3. Carefully Manage Your Linen Inventory
If you’re losing track of where certain hospital linen items are, including bedding, gowns, towels, or scrubs, then your business could benefit from having a more structured inventory management system. A huge part of properly caring for hospital linen is knowing where everything is, how much of each item you have, and being aware of what needs to be washed before employee or patient use.
Luckily, CleanCare redefines hospital linen management with our LINC linen tracking system. We guarantee that you’ll be able to better track your linen stock for significantly improved cost control.
4. Use Hot Water and Approved Detergents
Hospitals usually have hundreds of patients at one time, meaning that they have to wash and sort thousands of hospital linen items each week. These items have to be fully washed and disinfected with strong detergents in order to effectively eliminate all germs and harmful bacteria.
CleanCare does the hard part for you with our large stock of clean, long-lasting hospital linen items that always meet the standards set by the TRSA’s Hygienically Clean Certification. We use CDC-approved detergents and enough hot water to make your hospital linen items as clean as possible.
5. Train Your Staff on Safe Hospital Linen Handling
The best way to maximize efficiency, safety, and cleanliness in your healthcare business is to have all members of your team be on the same page. If everyone follows the same rules for handling, washing, drying, and storing hospital linen supplies, then you can reduce costs, save time, improve employee morale, and enhance patient safety and cleanliness.
Your staff will be ready to care for your hospital linens the right way with CleanCare on your side. We take the time to train your staff on how to best care for gowns, sheets, blankets, towels, and more. This way, you can get the most use out of your linens and make them last longer than ever.
Contact CleanCare Linen Today
Taking proper care of your hospital linen doesn’t have to feel like an impossible task. CleanCare makes it easy to manage your linens long-term, helping you save time and money, and focus on giving your patients the care they need.
Contact CleanCare today, and learn more about how our linen solutions can transform your healthcare facility.
