Training Video Offers Best Practices for Handling Soiled Linen to Control Infections, Reduce Waste

TRSA, a global textile services trade association, today released a 13-minute best practices training video - The 6C’s: Handling Soiled Linen in a Healthcare Environment - developed specially for nurses, environmental services personnel, housekeepers and others that may contact soiled linen in a healthcare environment. The six easy-to-follow steps aid infection control, enhance patient care and reduce costs at hospitals, outpatient clinics, nursing homes and other medical facilities.

The training video, developed by TRSA commercial laundry professionals in cooperation with the American Reusable Textile Association and the Association for Linen Management, provides best practices based on OSHA’s universal precautions for handling soiled linen saturated with blood, bodily fluids, harmful residue from treatments and other potentially infectious materials (OPIM). OSHA’s Universal Precautions assumes that all human blood and OPIM are infectious and these precautions protect healthcare workers, patients, residents, and visitors.

“Healthcare facilities, from family practices to hospitals and emergency care centers are complex environments with many demands made on staff and other personnel,” says TRSA president and CEO Joseph Ricci. “This video was designed to be low impact for information complexity, but high impact on simple steps that everyone can take to improve the continuum of care and reduce linen loss.”

Not only can the improper handling of healthcare linens increase the risk of infection, it generates costly waste due to improper disposal. Nearly 90 percent of all linen used in U.S. hospitals does not reach its useful life, costing the healthcare industry more than $840 million in annual losses.

Working with its partners in the healthcare community and following best practices created by TRSA in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), TRSA’s Soiled Linen training video incorporates industry best practices to enhance safety within the healthcare environment, improve patient care and reduce related healthcare costs.

The training video is available to all healthcare providers at no cost. To order and view a trailer that provides more details regarding the video, visit www.trsa.org/soiledlinen or contact a nearby TRSA Hygienically Clean certified laundry: bit.ly/hygienicallyclean.

Source: TRSA