Healthcare Linens: How Is “Hygienically Clean” Defined?

1. Healthcare Linens: How Is “Hygienically Clean” Defined? Here at Alsco, we take great pride in delivering hygienically clean healthcare linens to our customers. Being certified hygienically clean is particularly important to us. It is so important, in fact, that we were instrumental in developing the hygienically clean standards for our industry. We believe our customers deserve nothing less. You should know laundry facilities claiming to be hygienically clean are not certified so without obtaining industry certification. Rest assured the certification process is quite rigorous. Commercial linen rental companies must not only go to great lengths to satisfy testing and inspection requirements but also maintain high standards to remain certified. What Hygienically Clean Actually Means Hygienically clean linens are linens free of yeast, mold, and harmful bacteria (more details on that in a minute). For now, think about the difference between linens that are and are not hygienically clean. Alsco Inc.

2. Our linens are delivered to client locations free of yeast, mold, and harmful bacteria. The linens look clean to the naked eye and are free of germs, viruses and bacteria that can make people sick. Linens that are not certified hygienically clean might be clean on the surface only. Imagine painting over a moldy wall then killing the mold on a second wall before painting. Both walls would look equally clean after a fresh coat of paint, but the wall still hosting active mold is not clean under the paint’s surface. That mold will penetrate the paint eventually, and you will be back to square one. Linens that are not certified hygienically clean may not be truly clean under the surface. This is not good, especially in the healthcare setting. This is why we helped develop hygienically clean standards before undergoing the process to have our plants and products certified. The Hygienically Clean Healthcare Certification confirms that an organization is continually dedicated to infection prevention, compliance with recognized industry standards, and processing healthcare textiles using best management practices, a focal point for hygienically clean inspectors’ evaluation. Rigorous Product Testing Becoming certified hygienically clean is a multistep process that includes rigorous testing to meet the initial qualification for certification. Products like healthcare sheets and scrubs are subjected to two rounds of microbial testing at the start of the process. If the products pass both rounds of testing, they move on to an equally rigorous on-site facility inspection that includes a third round of microbial testing as the final step toward hygienically clean certification. Independent labs abiding by hygienically clean industry standards test all products. They test and certify products based on standard protocols. Any products that do not pass the required tests cannot be certified hygienically clean. On-Site Inspections When working with our partners to develop hygienically clean standards, we understood that merely submitting product samples for testing was not good enough. We knew linen providers could do what was required to pass product testing but then resort to other ways of doing things after testing was complete. As such, we understood that on-site facility inspections were necessary. Alsco Inc.

3. Inspections look at a host of factors, including the following: •Production processes •Employee training and protection •Management’s understanding of legal requirements •OSHA compliance verification •Physical plant operations The point of on-site inspections is to determine whether plants normally operate in such a way as to ensure consistent adherence to standards. To maintain their certification, laundries must continue to pass quarterly microbial testing that must show an absence of specified microorganisms to ensure hygienically clean products are consistently maintained. On-site re- inspections occur every three years. As the world continues to battle COVID-19, it is more important than ever for linen and uniform rental companies to provide facilities with hygienically clean products. Alsco is committed to doing just that — today, tomorrow, and all the days ahead. Alsco Inc.