Well cared for with a concept!
An on-premise laundry is a serious responsibility! In inpatient facilities, hygiene is of particular importance. Legal requirements regarding personnel hygiene, professional preparation of rooms, areas and laundry are very complex issues, and the compliance with these requirements demands a high degree of know-how. The increasing prices for energy and water are up against the relatively small budgets for hygienic cleanliness.
Nursing facilities are faced every day with large laundry loads composed of different items and materials. The residents’ laundry alone, a varied mixture of underwear, shirts, blouses, trousers, skirts and woolware, accounts for about half of the amount. In addition, bedding, terry articles, table linen and work clothing as well as heavily soiled laundry from the kitchen and from the care environment, e.g. incontinence products or microbially polluted laundry, arrive in the laundry room every day and need to be treated accordingly.
Each laundry load requires special washing programmes that must comply with the materials, the degree of soiling, the types of dirt and the legal hygiene requirements (RKI – §18 IfSG, VAH) because a perfectly clean laundry with a neutral odour is the basis of the hygiene required in the nursing sector.
However, the efficient use of machines and resources and well-trained personnel are important issues in retirement and nursing homes that are not to be underestimated.