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The Healthcare Laundry Accreditation Council (HLAC) said its HLAC Laundry Processing Monitoring ToolKit (PMTK) can be a highly effective resource for laundries taking extra precautionary measures amidst the current healthcare crisis.
Introduced last summer, HLAC's PMTK is an encased set of five self-contained, color-coded sampling kits designed to measure the number of microorganisms found in a laundry on hard surfaces, in the air, on linen, in the water and on employee hands. "PMTK was a breakthrough innovation at the time of its introduction, and, arguably, its significance is even more apparent in today's guarded environment," said Gregory Gicewicz, former HLAC board president and current board member who headed the committee that developed the ToolKit on behalf of HLAC - a nonprofit organization that inspects and accredits laundries processing textiles for hospitals, nursing homes and other healthcare facilities.
Gicewicz said PMTK was developed by HLAC as a response to the challenge for laundry operators to continually know how well their processes are performing and whether their standards are on target as originally intended. "The sampling kits contained in our ToolKit employ an extraction technique designed to recover the most accurate representation of contamination on laundry media," he said.
Gicewicz cited two examples where PMTK offers processing safeguards during the current healthcare crisis:
"In a responsible healthcare laundry, rigorous surface disinfecting already is a paramount part of processing, including disinfecting of carts, tables, conveyors and shelves," he said. "But we also know from recent studies that the virus that causes COVID-19 can live on surfaces and in the air for several hours to days. Given this, the challenge for laundries is how to know if these tested surfaces are really clean. PMTK can help quantify how clean their surfaces are and how effective their cleaning process is."
In a second example, Gicewicz regarded the importance of hand hygiene within the healthcare laundry to protect employees as well as clean linen from contaminated organisms. "It's commonly known that many pathogens including COVID-19 can be spread via contaminated hands. So how can a laundry know that its workers are following the proper hand-washing procedures? PMTK contains a hand-hygiene analysis to measure the cleanliness of employee hands, pre- and post-wash."
Upon ordering, PMTK is delivered to the laundry in a protective case. Inside are the five, color-coded sampling, detailed instructions and all of the supplies and materials necessary to collect samples. Monitoring can be performed at the laundry's convenience - one time, quarterly and semiannually, etc. Pricing is determined by length of the lease.
"Clearly, PMTK benefits the healthcare laundry," Gicewicz said. "Additionally, for the laundry's healthcare customers, knowing their laundry is utilizing the ToolKit provides the peace of mind that extra
precautionary steps are being taken to ensure infection prevention and patient safety." For more information,visit www.pmtknet.org.xxThe Healthcare Laundry Accreditation Council (HLAC) said its HLAC Laundry Processing Monitoring ToolKit (PMTK) can be a highly effective resource for laundries taking extra precautionary measures amidst the current healthcare crisis.
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Introduced last summer, HLAC's PMTK is an encased set of five self-contained, color-coded sampling kits designed to measure the number of microorganisms found in a laundry on hard surfaces, in the air, on linen, in the water and on employee hands. "PMTK was a breakthrough innovation at the time of its introduction, and, arguably, its significance is even more apparent in today's guarded environment," said Gregory Gicewicz, former HLAC board president and current board member who headed the committee that developed the ToolKit on behalf of HLAC - a nonprofit organization that inspects and accredits laundries processing textiles for hospitals, nursing homes and other healthcare facilities.
Gicewicz said PMTK was developed by HLAC as a response to the challenge for laundry operators to continually know how well their processes are performing and whether their standards are on target as originally intended. "The sampling kits contained in our ToolKit employ an extraction technique designed to recover the most accurate representation of contamination on laundry media," he said.
Gicewicz cited two examples where PMTK offers processing safeguards during the current healthcare crisis:
"In a responsible healthcare laundry, rigorous surface disinfecting already is a paramount part of processing, including disinfecting of carts, tables, conveyors and shelves," he said. "But we also know from recent studies that the virus that causes COVID-19 can live on surfaces and in the air for several hours to days. Given this, the challenge for laundries is how to know if these tested surfaces are really clean. PMTK can help quantify how clean their surfaces are and how effective their cleaning process is."
In a second example, Gicewicz regarded the importance of hand hygiene within the healthcare laundry to protect employees as well as clean linen from contaminated organisms. "It's commonly known that many pathogens including COVID-19 can be spread via contaminated hands. So how can a laundry know that its workers are following the proper hand-washing procedures? PMTK contains a hand-hygiene analysis to measure the cleanliness of employee hands, pre- and post-wash."
Upon ordering, PMTK is delivered to the laundry in a protective case. Inside are the five, color-coded sampling, detailed instructions and all of the supplies and materials necessary to collect samples. Monitoring can be performed at the laundry's convenience - one time, quarterly and semiannually, etc. Pricing is determined by length of the lease.
"Clearly, PMTK benefits the healthcare laundry," Gicewicz said. "Additionally, for the laundry's healthcare customers, knowing their laundry is utilizing the ToolKit provides the peace of mind that extra
precautionary steps are being taken to ensure infection prevention and patient safety." For more information,visit www.pmtknet.org.
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