Sabina Fijan (Author), Sonja Šostar-Turk (Author), Avrelija Cencič (Author)

Abstract

As textiles sent to hospital laundries contain many types of pathogenic organisms, it is important that laundering not only has an appropriate cleaning effect but also has a satisfactory disinfecting effect. Critical to this process is the maintenance of an appropriate hygiene level in the clean area of laundries in order to prevent recontamination of textiles from manual handling when ironing, folding, packing etc. The aims of this study were to evaluate the hygienic state of a hospital laundry, to introduce continuous sanitary measures, and to introduce a continuous hygiene monitoring system with an infection control programme. Two systems for evaluating hospital laundry hygiene were combined: HACCP principles (hazard analysis and critical control points) and RAL-GZ 992 standards (quality assurance standard for textile care of hospital laundry). Evaluation of the hygienic state of the hospital laundry was carried out by evaluating the number and types of micro-organisms present at the critical control points throughout the whole laundering process, using RODAC agar plates for surface sampling and the pour plate method for investigating water samples. The initial examination showed that the sanitary condition of the laundry did not reach the required hygiene level. Therefore, fundamental sanitation measures were instituted and the examination was repeated. Results were then satisfactory. The most important critical control point was the chemothermal laundering efficiency of the laundering process. To prevent micro-organisms spreading into the entire cleanworking area, it is important that, in addition to regular sanitary measures such as cleaning/disinfecting all working areas, technical equipment and storage shelves etc., regular education sessions for laundry employees on proper hand hygiene is undertaken and effective separation of the clean and dirty working areas is achieved.

Keywords

nega tekstilij;bolnišnično perilo;higiena pralnic;mikroorganizmi;kakovostni parametri pranja;sanitarno-mikrobiološki parametri;textile care;hospital laundry;laundry hygiene;micro-organisms;washing quality parameters;sanitary microbiological parameters;hospital-acquired disease prevention;sanitary measures;

Data

Language: English
Year of publishing:
Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
Organization: UM FKBV - Faculty of Agriculture
UDC: 677.07:648.23:613
COBISS: 9640982 Link will open in a new window
ISSN: 0195-6701
Views: 2441
Downloads: 82
Average score: 0 (0 votes)
Metadata: JSON JSON-RDF JSON-LD TURTLE N-TRIPLES XML RDFA MICRODATA DC-XML DC-RDF RDF

Other data

Secondary language: English
Secondary keywords: nega tekstilij;bolnišnično perilo;higiena pralnic;mikroorganizmi;kakovostni parametri pranja;sanitarno-mikrobiološki parametri;
URN: URN:SI:UM:
Pages: str. 30-38
Volume: ǂVol. ǂ61
Issue: ǂiss. ǂ1
Chronology: 2005
ID: 8718300