USA
Final-phase testing has commenced on a new resource – called the HLAC Laundry Process Monitoring Toolkit – available from the Healthcare Laundry Accreditation Council (HLAC) that validates the effectiveness of a laundry’s processes by measuring the number of microorganisms found in a laundry on hard surfaces, in the air, on linen, in the water and on employee hands.
Currently, a cross-section of healthcare laundries – HLAC accredited and non-accredited – are part of a control group to substantiate the new toolkit’s performance through a testing process.
“HLAC has developed the Laundry Process Monitoring Toolkit to respond to the challenge for operators to continually know how well their processes are performing and whether their standards are on target as originally intended,” said Gregory Gicewicz, who heads the committee developing the toolkit on behalf of HLAC.
HLAC is a non-profit organisation that inspects and accredits laundries processing textiles for hospitals, nursing homes and other healthcare facilities.
“Responsible healthcare laundries go to great lengths to maintain the highest standards in the name of hygiene and infection prevention,” said HLAC President-Elect Linda McCurdy. “Moreover, laundries that are accredited by HLAC have set in place numerous in-plant processes to provide their healthcare customers hygienically clean linen. Our toolkit goes a long way to safeguarding all of these endeavours.”
Final-phase testing should be completed by the first quarter of next year, with a formal international launch of the new toolkit shortly thereafter.
