Domestic laundering of healthcare worker uniforms lacks the control and decontamination monitoring of hospital-grade washing. When a home laundry process fails to eliminate contamination, it can spread to other items in the laundry load.
The objective of this paper is to educate healthcare professionals, administrators, and policymakers about the importance of proper garment processing and to follow the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN) recommendations for garment processing by certified healthcare laundries.
Hygienically Clean certifications recognize linen, uniform, and facility services companies’ commitment to cleanliness through laundry plant inspection and third-party, quantified biological testing. Infection preventionists will gain an understanding of how Hygienically Clean certification is pioneering microbiological testing and, in turn, recommend that hospital decision-makers request in their RFPs laundries that are Hygienically Clean certified to benefit their staff and curb infection risk.