Commitment to Clean

Cleanliness is critical in any healthcare setting. Patients, staff and visitors expect to find a clean, germ-free facility each time they enter. And that level of cleanliness should extend to uniforms and patient wear. That’s why the TRSA, an international trade association for the laundry industry, established the Hygienically Clean Healthcare certification in 2012. This certification took the core concepts from their Healthcare Laundry Accreditation Council (HLAC) and took it a step further to include requirements for products, not just processes.

What it Means

As a member of the TRSA, we place a high value on delivering clean, top-quality products to our customers. Several of our facilities have earned the Hygienically Clean Healthcare designation, which is a voluntary certification from TRSA. This process is facilitated by third-party verification and testing to control the spread of healthcare-associated infections (HAI).

This process also eliminates subjectivity by focusing on results that verify textiles cleaned in such facilities meet appropriate hygienically clean standards and best practices for hospitals, surgery centers, medical offices, nursing homes and other medical facilities.

“Hygienically Clean standards have a very large and positive impact on public health in general because they lower the overall community infectious disease risk burden,” says David F. Goldsmith, MSPH, Ph.D., Occupational and Environmental Epidemiologist, Milken Institute School of Public Health, George Washington University, Washington, D.C.

Certification Process

In order to gain the Hygienically Clean Healthcare certification, a facility and its products must undergo rigorous testing, which includes:

• Passing inspection that verifies laundry processes
• Passing microbial testing that quantifies textile product cleanliness
• Adopting new procedures to deliver better quality

Commercial laundering formulas, which include carefully calibrated time, temperature, chemistry and mechanical actions, are reviewed by objective experts.

Inspectors also ensure laundries are using best management practices, which are grounded in specific healthcare regulations and standards (e.g., OSHA, EPA, CDC and ANSI). Facilities must maintain a Quality Assurance manual that documents their complete range of processes.

Why it Matters

Based on these processes, customers can be confident that the uniforms and linens handled in a Hygienically Clean Healthcare facility consistently meet hygiene standards appropriate for medical facilities. Routine testing ensures:

• Inspectors have verified plant’s infrastructure/equipment, housekeeping, soiled linen handling, washing and drying procedures, transportation and delivery
• Soiled and clean laundry are separated to avoid contamination
• Continued enforcement of the highest standards for producing clean healthcare textiles

Hygienically Clean Healthcare goes beyond Healthcare Laundry Accreditation Council (HLAC) certification by requiring inspection for routine yeast/mold detection on clean linen, detection of overall microbial content, detection of bacteria (USP 62) and quality assurance.

AmeriPride is proud of this designation and what it means for our customers. We are constantly looking toward improving our cleaning processes. “Healthcare customers can rest assured that AmeriPride goes to exceptional lengths to prevent human illness and measure the cleanliness of its products,” says Joseph Ricci, TRSA president and CEO.