Hospital laundry policies aren't only about ensuring laundry has a thorough clean but also about guaranteeing laundry is decontaminated and any spread of infection and disease is contained.

Rather than wait until an infection outbreak or a challenging antimicrobial strain is present in your care home, consider updating your prevention policies — paying special attention to upgrading your laundry policy. When developing a resilient and sanitary Hospital laundry policy, consider the medical PVA laundry bag.

The Benefit of a Medical PVA Laundry Bag in Handling of Contaminated Laundry

Your Hospital laundry procedures probably already designate that cloth or material laundry bags shouldn't be used. However, plastic laundry bags aren't sufficient.

For a truly sanitary Hospital laundry policy, you need to use a medical water-soluble laundry bag.

These laundry bags are made from water-soluble PVA, meaning once the laundry is placed into the bags, they don't need to be touched until decontaminated.

These are some of the most prolific benefits of this innovative cleaning supply.

Minimize Contact with Contaminated Laundry

Staff designated to laundry are at the greatest risk of becoming infected by soiled pieces when they come into contact with the items when transferring laundry for sorting or washing.

Using medical PVA dissolvable laundry bags, that risk to staff becomes non-existent. Instead, by using these laundry bags, Hospital staff can take contaminated laundry from laundry baskets and place them into the washing machines without touching the garments.

Build an Effective Hospital Laundry Policy

The medical PVA dissolvable laundry bags are central to developing an effective medical laundry policy. Care homes will have a mixture of garments — PPE, scrubs, uniforms, cleaning cloths, bedding, and towels — that need to be cleaned. Rather than sorting these after they're placed in the laundry basket, the medical PVA dissolvable laundry bags means you can pre-sort garments and throw them into the washing machine.

Maintain Sanitary Procedures and Increase Staff Safety

The medical PVA laundry bag makes it easy for Hospital staff to maintain existing laundry procedures because it makes navigating them less complicated. These easier to commit to memory processes are also responsible for elevating staff safety.

How to Build Nursing Home Laundry Policies and Procedures

Although there are several guidelines detailing how to create nursing home laundry policies and procedures, to create a standard operating practice that sticks, follow the below steps.

Step 1: Define Gaps in Existing Laundry Policies

Examine your care home's existing gaps or weak processes. Pay close attention to where and when in the process soiled and contaminated laundry is handled and why.

Using the cases when staff handles laundry will become your baseline for specific instances that need changing.

To thoroughly understand possible shortcomings, rely on your laundry workers' feedback.

Step 2: Address these Gaps with a Medical Water Soluble Laundry Bag

A medical water-soluble laundry bag guarantees that your care home's laundry staff needs to have zero contact with soiled and contaminated garments and linens.

Step 3: Divide Laundry into Baskets Based on Types of Laundry

Begin using color-coded laundry baskets corresponding to color-coded medical PVA dissolvable laundry bags. Use bright colors to ensure that there isn't confusion.

The baskets should be separated based on what goes into the basket and lined with a matching colored laundry bag.

Scrubs should have one color while bedding a different color, the same with PPE, and so on. Place the appropriate baskets in each department within your Hospital to limit the spread of germs.

For example, baskets for scrubs and cleaning gear will be a must in intensive care.

Step 4: Decide on Sanitizing Temperatures for Different Garments and Fabrics

Relying on the manufacturers cleaning directions for scrubs, coats, and cleaning cloths will help you define the temperatures at which garments and fabrics are properly sanitized.

Fabrics are typically sanitized at 60°C (140°F).

Step 5: Create a One-Page Policy Document and Inform Staff

While administrative staff can have an entire binder on the new laundry policy, it helps implement policies if they're kept as uncomplicated as possible.

Create a one-page laundry policy document describing the color-coded system to all staff because this will affect everyone. Then create a separate document for cleaning staff so they know when to empty the laundry baskets, what temperatures items should be washed and dried, and how they should be handled.

Also, include guidelines on hypothetical scenarios.

Consider what staff should do if garments are mixed up and what they should do if the bag punctures or breaks. Answer those hypothetical scenarios.

Conclusion

There are very few instances when applying one product can change the hygiene of your care home. But relying on medical PVA dissolvable laundry bags will transform your care home's laundry policy.

POLYVA has developed a 100 percent water-soluble medical-grade laundry bag that keeps the nasties in until it comes into contact with a machine's constant stream of water.