The Healthcare Laundry Accreditation Council (HLAC) is calling for a heightened awareness and increased understanding of the role of the healthcare laundry facility in infection prevention and patient safety.
This, in the wake of a newly published report in FEMS Microbiology Letters that suggests "dirty laundry" may be a source of surface Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) contamination.
"The message of this study is clear: The healthcare laundry needs to be part of any infection prevention strategy," said Joan Blanchard, an infection preventionist on the HLAC Board of Directors.
The report, resulting from an investigation of a laundry facility that services several Seattle-area hospitals, determined if C. difficile, a hospital and community-acquired pathogen, could be cultured from clinical laundry facility surfaces.
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