Hygienically Clean Healthcare Exhibit Educates Surgery Center Professionals

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — May 19, 2017 — An exhibit at the recent Ambulatory Surgery Center Association (ASCA) annual meeting in Washington promoted the value of doing business with a Hygienically Clean Healthcare certified launderer. More than 120 attendees learned how the certification verifies laundries’ best management practices (BMPs) and quantifies laundered product cleanliness.

The display marked the first such promotion of Hygienically Clean Healthcare to an outpatient medical market. Previous exhibits touted the certification to hospital audiences: the Association for the Healthcare Environment (AHE) and Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC). Like members of those groups, most ASCA participants interviewed were industry customers, but represented a wider variety of professions, including M.D. owners and these job titles:

  • Administrator;
  • Business Manager;
  • CEO, President, CFO, COO;
  • Chief Medical Officer;
  • Clinical Coordinator, Director;
  • Nursing Director; and
  • Regional Director, vice president.

Roughly 10 percent of the visitors to the Hygienically Clean exhibit on May 3-5 expressed concern about the product and service quality of their linen, uniform and facility services providers. Using a Hygienically Clean certified launderer addresses quality concerns, they were told, as inspectors focus on a facility’s quality assurance manual as the hub of control measures (BMPs) that minimize potential for error. In addition, unlike Healthcare Laundry Accreditation Council (HLAC) certification, Hygienically Clean microbial testing measures finished product quality, enforcing a total microbial content ceiling, including yeasts, molds and bacteria.

Visitors received copies of the Hygienically Clean Healthcare standard and the brochure that explains benefits of using such a certified launderer. Also on hand was the new white paper, Environmental Safety in Outpatient Care, which provides hyperlinks to a variety of documents to aid in the prevention of transmission of environmental pathogens. Visitors also were welcome to a copy of The Six C’s: Handling Soiled Linen in a Healthcare Environment, a training video for personnel provided on a flash drive. Both represent Hygienically Clean Healthcare certified laundries’ commitment to sharing textile product management expertise with customers so they make more effective and efficient use of linen and uniform services.

A laundry’s QA documentation is the focal point for Hygienically Clean inspectors’ evaluation of critical control points that minimize risk. The independent, third-party inspection must confirm essential evidence that:

  • Employees are properly trained and protected;
  • Managers understand legal requirements;
  • OSHA-compliant; and
  • Physical plant operates effectively.

The Hygienically Clean standard provides for two inspections every three years. OSHA compliance is closely examined, particularly toxic and hazardous substance handling rules governing textiles containing blood and other potentially infectious materials. Microbial testing ensures that as laundry conditions change, such as water quality, textile fabric composition and wash chemistry, laundered product quality is consistently maintained.

This process eliminates subjectivity by focusing on outcomes and results that verify textiles cleaned in these facilities meet appropriate hygienically clean standards and BMPs for hospitals, surgery centers, medical offices, nursing homes and other medical facilities.

Posted May 19, 2017

Source: TRSA

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