How clean are your washed linens? This question is cropping up in conversations about commercial linens more and more of late – and for good reason!

People are getting increasingly aware of how critical medical linens are, as they get exposed to all sorts of disease-carrying pathogens – from toxic molds to C. difficile bacteria – which could be dangerous and even fatal to many patients especially to those whose immune systems are compromised by age or illness (e.g. newborns, patients undergoing chemotherapy, the elderly, etc).

Questioning the integrity of medical laundry facilities and the linens they process is quickly changing the commercial laundry industry. Service providers are being held accountable for their claims and are now more compelled to upgrade their facilities and services to provide better, safer, more hygienic linens or risk losing their business.

In an industry where safety and cleanliness are a matter of life and death, it is your right to ask questions and assess whether or not your linen service provider of choice is competent enough to deliver the quality of cleanliness that will help ensure your patients’ protection against infectious diseases. Here are some things you can do to find out if you are with the right medical linen service provider:

1. Look into their facility and washing process.

The single most important factor in ensuring the quality and safety of your medical linens is the competence of your medical linen service provider. Before hiring a company with whom to entrust your linens, it is imperative to know and understand their washing process and make sure that they are dedicated to hygiene. What kind of facility do they have? How many other medical facilities do they service? What are their safety protocols in place for especially critically exposed linens (e.g. soiled linens)? What is their stance on the right water temperature? These are some of the essential questions that should lead you towards a better understanding of how hygienic their process, and ergo their laundered linens, are.   

2. Review their pickup, delivery, and storage process.

Storage and transportation of linens is just as crucial as the washing process. It is important to find out how the medical linen service provider safeguards laundered linens from exposure during the transportation of the linens from their facility to yours.

3. Check their affiliations and accreditations.

Your linen service provider’s affiliations and accreditations are a telltale sign of the kind of procedures and standards they adhere to. Are they part of an independent commercial laundry organization that keeps track of its members’ adherence to hygienically clean linens? Are they in any way accredited or certified by accreditation bodies that advocate for hygiene?

4. Assess their knowledge of and compliance with healthcare laundry guidelines.

Government agencies like the CDC and the OSHA have standards when it comes to the handling, transportation, and washing of hospital linens. Find out how well your linen service provider knows, understands, and adheres to these standards to know whether or not they have the capacity and the know-how to produce hygienic linens.  

Protect your facility and your patients – work only with linen service facilities that have a serious commitment to safety and hygiene!