The Healthcare Laundry Accreditation Council (HLAC) has re-accredited the Pensacola, FL, facility of Crown Health Care Laundry Services (Crown), an independent full-service healthcare laundry processor and linen rental company with locations throughout the Southeast. The re-accreditation comes after a voluntary inspection of Crown's complete textile processing cycle: from handling and transporting soiled healthcare textiles, to in-plant processing and delivery back to the customer.
HLAC is a nonprofit organization that inspects and accredits laundries that process reusable textiles for hospitals, nursing homes and other healthcare facilities - based on the highest, professionally recognized standards for patient safety and infection prevention.
"Becoming re-accredited by HLAC is important to all of us at Crown, from the associates who unload the trucks of soiled linen that come into our facility from our customers, to the many team members involved in the in-plant processing and handling of those linens, to those responsible for getting the linens safely back to the customer," said Crown CEO Don Haferkamp. "All of us, including me, have learned a lot from having to fulfill the more than 600 standards that have to be met to receive HLAC accreditation. This is no small accomplishment. It should give our customers a lot of confidence in our standards."
HLAC accreditation means the laundry meets HLAC Accreditation Standards, which have been developed based on federal regulations and guidelines as well as best industry practices. The standards are established as the minimum acceptable practice for the preparation of hygienically clean, reusable healthcare textiles for patient care, implemented and executed by accredited laundry facilities processing reusable healthcare textiles.
HLAC's standards are internationally recognized. The Association for the Healthcare Environment (AHE) has awarded its AHE Seal of Review and Recognition™ to HLAC Accreditation Standards document.
"Among leading hospitals, HLAC accreditation is becoming a requirement to be considered a healthcare laundry vendor," said John Scherberger, HLAC board president. "Leading laundries like Crown don't wait to be told but instead initiate accreditation and re-accreditation proactively. Congratulations to Crown for continuing to deliver the benefits of HLAC accreditation to its Pensacola-area customers."
Other Crown healthcare laundry facilities that are currently HLAC accredited are located in Quitman, GA; Columbia, MS; and Selma, AL. HLAC accreditation is good for three years.
For more information, www.hlacnet.org, on Twitter @NewsHlac.
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