Infection Prevention for Launderers

When you are running a professional laundry operation, you understand that your customers depend on you to provide them with completely sanitized linens. This means that all of their laundry is returned to them free from infection. The weight of this responsibility increases even further when you consider the fact that many of your clients, such as hospitals, will in turn have customers who depend on them to provide healthy and infection-free conditions. Maintaining a sanitary operation encompasses many facets beyond the laundering process. Here are some critical factors to bear in mind when maintain a facility that keeps all laundry free of infection.
Smart Facility Design
Factors such as air flow can have a surprisingly significant effect on how sanitary your laundry facility conditions are. Careful attention must be paid to the directions in which doors swing open and where fans are blowing, lest particles sitting on soiled laundry be blown towards linens that have already been cleaned. This requires very careful planning, and for some facilities a strict regimen to regulate when and where certain loads may pass through.
Clean Storage and Transportation
Sanitizing laundry is fairly pointless if it is then stored or transported in such a way as to allow for recontamination. You must make sure that the holding area where you store freshly laundered linens and any transportation used to move fresh linens are completely clean. This means that they are free from dust and dirt, and no pests such as rodents or insects will be able to enter. Another important feature is that each customer's load is clearly labeled, and that clean laundry is not being stored near soiled laundry. Storing soiled linens next to clean linens can result in the spread of contaminants, especially if you serve medical facilities.
Hygienic Policies
Having policies and procedures in place to regulate any potentially unsanitary practices amongst employees is critical for their own protection as well as for the protection of the services that you provide. Certain practices should be banned in general because they might cause germs to be spread to the items handled. A list of rules that should be in place includes, but is not necessarily limited to, hair being tied back and tucked into a cap or net, no dangling jewelry or rings, no cellphones (these are huge germ carriers), no fake nails, no food or beverages, regular changes of clothing after working with soiled items, and frequent and thorough hand washing.