Professionally laundered uniforms help prevent HAIs

Dateline: 01.07.2010
Author: Infection Control Today

Pointing out that hospital acquired infections result in 99,000 associated deaths annually in the United States, that country’s Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths (RID) notes that unwanted costs can be mitigated by providing healthcare providers with hygienically laundered uniforms, versus requiring them to purchase, launder and maintain their own healthcare apparel.

A 28 June news report in Infection Control Today observed that it is also more cost-effective for institutions to provide staff with professionally laundered uniforms.

Infectious bacteria routinely hitchhike on the lab coats and scrubs of medical personnel who interact with patients, explains Charles P. Gerba, PhD, an environmental microbiology expert at the University of Arizona. He says for many hours “those bacteria can still be alive and passed on through incidental contact with other patients.” And, according to a University of Maryland study, 65 percent of hospital personnel only change their lab coats weekly and 15 percent monthly.

“Medical staffs have demanding schedules and doing their laundry in a hygienic manner may be difficult for them,” points out Adam Soreff of UniFirst, a supplier of uniforms and work apparel programs to businesses throughout the US and Canada.

“That's why specialised uniform rental services make sense.”

Such services use self-sanitising, EPA-approved wash formulas and handling procedures developed for healthcare workers that are designed to produce a longer-lasting, sanitised cleanliness that can't be achieved with home laundering. Pick-ups, deliveries, automatic repairs and replacements are part of the service which, Soreff says, “costs less than a daily cup of coffee per wearer.”

In contrast, RID notes the average cost to cure just one infection is US$15,275, the equivalent of more than 7,000 changes of rental lab coats or scrubs.

www.infectioncontroltoday.com

Professionally laundered uniforms help prevent HAIs