Healthcare Laundry: A Microbe-Host? (How to Select Your Healthcare Laundry Service)
Standard 416.41(a) states that the “ASC’s must assure that the contract services are provided safely and effectively . Contract services must be included in the ASC’s QAPI program.” Further in Appendix L surveyors are instructed to ask for a list of contracted services and “select several and ask for documentation of the most recent assessment of each by the ASC”. Clearly your outsourced laundry service will be questioned as it plays a significant role in your infection prevention strategy. Have you performed an assessment of your laundry provider? This session will provide you the tools and knowledge to do so.
PRESENTED BY: Robin Novak, RN, CIC - Director of Infection Prevention - Excellentia Advisory Group
Registered Nurse, Certified Infection Preventionist dedicated to disease prevention and high quality healthcare. Strong decision maker who understands the importance of patient, visitor and staff safety following evidence based best practices.
Driven and compassionate healthcare professional with 30 years hands-on experience in fast-paced ambulatory surgery center and hospital environments. Accountable and responsible with an additional focus on Quality Assurance Process Improvement.
Robin has served as the SGNA Carolina Chapter President, involved in SGNA Practice Committee as well as a Regional Committee member for the past several years. Robin is a current member of Palmetto APIC as well as the national APIC. Robin has been employed at the Ambulatory Surgery Center of Spartanburg since 2004 and held roles of Endoscopy Nurse, Endoscopy Charge Nurse and currently the Quality Assurance Process Improvement Coordinator. Robin is currently employed as the Director of Infection Prevention for Excellentia Advisory Group.
DESCRIPTION:
As we explore avenues to prevent infection, it is prudent for facility leadership and infection preventionist to look at their contracted providers. While there are many contracted providers, today I want to discuss healthcare laundry. Surveyors are observing infection prevention breaches related to laundry intake and storage. What impact does laundry have on your patients and staff?
While it is true, there are limited documented infectious outbreaks due to laundered healthcare textiles; a quick search will reveal an increased frequency. In some of the instances, patients have died. Therefore, it is important for end-users to be aware of the current recommended standards.
Some primary standards include:
- Protect laundry from washer to patient skin
- Functional separation between all laundry processes
- Utilization of proper wash parameters
While contracts with providers which are healthcare laundry certified and accredited are desired, some areas lack access. What actions should the ASC leadership take to support limited microbial organism host opportunities occur with their contracted laundry service?
With all these questions and issues in mind, Robin Novak, RN, CIC and the Excellentia Advisory Group team visited a HLAC-certified laundry service to conduct an interview as well as to do on-site visit. The purpose of this interview and tour was to ask all the questions that you should be asking of your healthcare laundry service. Robin followed an abbreviated interview form consisting of suggested questions that HLAC says are important in selecting a healthcare laundry service.
This presentation is worth 1 Contact Hours continuing education.1 This presentation will also utilize two pre-recorded video clips consisting of the interview with Caleb Paige, Safety Director - Faultless Linen as well as the plant tour with Caleb.
OUR THANKS AND APPRECIATION TO FAULTLESS LINEN for allowing us to come on-site to create our education film and webinar!
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
The learner will be able to:
- Identify facility controllable activities that impact healthcare laundry
- Identify key attributes which enhance outsourced healthcare laundry services
- Discuss best practice for healthcare laundry
PRICE: $139.00 plus shipping and handling
1Once you and any/all staff have reviewed this presentation, you will be eligible to receive a Certificate of Participation worth 1.0 Credit Hour of continuing education. You simply contact us at events@excellentiagroup.com requesting your certificates, using the Certificate Request Form found in the link below. You will need to provide a typed list of all participants first and last names, position title (RN ,BSN, etc.), license numbers (if professionals) and date of completion.
* Excellentia Advisory Group LLC is approved by the California Board of Registered Nursing, Provider CEP 15481: Issue Date: 4/6/2010;
