The deadly fungal infection at the New Orleans Children's Hospital, believed to be caused by contaminated linens, is a wake-up call for laundries, according to an article on the American Laundry News website.
“Contamination should always be a concern,” Joseph Ricci, president and CEO of the Textile Rental Services Association, said in the article.
Linda Fairbanks, executive director of the Association for Linen Management, encouraged laundry operators to be vigilant every step of the way when processing, handling and delivering linens.
“It’s a process from the time it enters your door till the time it reaches your patient. And that’s the one thing that the New Orleans [Children’s Hospital] can teach us.”
“We focus so long on the wash wheel and wash formulas and chemicals and chlorine or oxygen bleach. And we focused on all these issues, yet this is the other side of that wall,” she said. “This is the clean side, the finishing side.”
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