Electrolux EN 14065 User Manual

Mini Guide

to hygienic laundry

practices

based on the RABC system/EN 14065

Index

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Hygienic laundry page 4

Storing and sorting dirty laundry page 6

Measures recommended under European Guidelines
Advice from professionals

Washing page 8

Measures recommended under European Guidelines
Advice from professionals

Transfer from washing to drying page 10

Measures recommended under European Guidelines
Advice from professionals

Drying and finishing page 12

Measures recommended under European Guidelines
Advice from professionals

Protection page 14

Measures recommended under European Guidelines
Advice from professionals

Transport page 16

Measures recommended under European Guidelines
Advice from professionals

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Hygienic laundry

Laundry is found throughout a hospital or care home: uniforms, bed linen,
catering articles, surgical dress, cleaning items (i.e. mops), patient clothing,
etc. Laundry plays an essential role in patient comfort whilst protecting
employees in their place of work.

Laundry is a potential carrier of healthcare acquired infections.
It is therefore vital to control its flow. Special measures must be taken to
ensure hygiene levels are maintained. The laundry items themselves must
not pose a threat to health and remain innocuous at every stage of their
storage, use and handling.

The key to this is to implement as strict process for all linen to be
processed, whether it is potentially poses a threat to health or not.

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Dirty laundry can spread germs to other areas and therefore the clean linen
needs to be handled as carefully as the dirty. This requires an in-depth
understanding of laundry flows, the correct use of fabrics suitable to the
task and working practices which ensure the employees are aware of how
their every day actions can impact the laundry operation.

In the current climate whereby hospitals must be able to produce
documentation to prove the quality of the processes used, the laundry flow
implemented must ensure permanent control systems are in place
to minimise and prevent the risk of healthcare acquired infections.

Linen hygiene is a key part of your overall quality process. The following
stages can be tailored to every kind of laundry set up; carrying out an
audit of the existing process, risk assessment, drawing up preventative
measures, creating standard operating procedures and implementing
quality assurance procedures that are evaluated and monitored at various
intervals. In addition, any service provider should be selected according
to specifications and defined hygiene standards.

With this in mind, please take the time to read this “Mini Guide to hygienic
laundry practices based on the RABC system*/EN 14065”.
We hope you find it useful.

* Risk Analysis Bio-contamination Control

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Storing and sorting
dirty laundry

Measures recommended under European Guidelines

European norm no. EN 14065
recommends that dirty laundry
be delivered to the laundry daily
in coloured textile bags
as follows:

Large flat laundry:

One colour for bags containing
sheets etc, all types of textiles,
all sizes.

Small flat laundry:

One colour for bags containing
pillow cases, bolster
cases, all catering laundry,
kitchen towels and aprons,
handkerchiefs, hospital gowns,
nightdresses and pyjamas.

Laundry to be tumble-dried:

One colour for bags containing all towels, flannels etc

All other laundry:

One colour for bags containing all other bedding, clothing, furnishings

Staff uniforms and “at risk” laundry is excluded from the above pre-sorting process.

• Collect textiles separately

• Do not store dirty laundry for long periods

• Do not bring dirty laundry into contact with clean laundry during transport