How To Keep The Bottom Line Of Medical Fabric Washing

Mixed washing of bed sheet with blood, patient's clothes and surgical clothes, pediatric medical fabric and adult medical fabric Recently, the media revealed that the washing of medical fabrics in a medical institution was not standardized, which was a surprise. The undercover investigation also found that in order to improve efficiency, some washing plants used industrial detergent to clean medical cloth and grass, and there was no strict high-temperature disinfection link. The so-called "classified washing" only separates hospitals, but does not classify departments, washing equipment, etc.

The fabrics in medical institutions can be divided into medical fabrics, infectious fabrics, dirty fabrics and cleaning fabrics. If the infectious fabric and dirty fabric are not disinfected, there is a potential risk of biological pollution, which leads to cross infection in the hospital and causes hidden danger to patients and healthy people. How can hospitals keep the bottom line of medical fabric washing? In view of the outsourcing practice of washing fabrics in many medical institutions, how should the government and hospitals supervise and control the hygiene standards? The reporter made an interview and investigation.

Improper disinfection of fabrics can cause nosocomial infection

According to the technical specifications for washing and disinfection of hospital medical fabrics, the so-called "medical fabrics" refer to the reusable textiles in the hospital, including the clothes, bed sheets, quilt covers and pillowcases used by the patients; the work clothes and hats used by the staff; the operation clothes and operation sheets; the bed curtains, curtains and the cloth towels and floor towels used for environmental cleaning.

Ni Yuxing, director of the infection prevention and Management Department of Ruijin Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University School of medicine, said: "because most of the inpatients have low immunity and are susceptible to infection, some bacteria that may not cause harm to health people have pathogenicity in the hospital." According to experts, "nosocomial infection" is a major issue, which mainly comes from two aspects: "first, the patient's own low immunity caused by disease and age; second, the infection caused by the hospital's internal environment is closely related to the air, water, any object surface and even the hand washing of medical personnel."

Washing outsourcing in many medical institutions

How to wash medical fabrics? "Generally speaking, the first step is cleaning and the second step is disinfection, which must be carried out in an environment above 90 ℃. The fabric must be cleaned first and then disinfected, because the fabric directly disinfected may still contain the patient's biological cells (such as protein, etc.), which will be wrapped in the cells after rapid solidification in case of high temperature. However, if the pollution is very serious, you can add another disinfection before the cleaning step. "

In May of this year, the basic standards and management specifications for medical disinfection supply center (Trial) formulated by the national health and Health Commission made it clear that wearable and foldable medical fabrics are managed as medical devices. When washing, they must meet the conditions of cleaning, disinfection, drying, inspection, folding, packaging, sterilization, storage, etc. before being put into hospital for use. Sun Xiuying, senior director of the safety office of Shanghai Jiahui International Hospital, has nearly 20 years of safety management experience in Singapore. She introduced that Jiahui hospital implements "special machine washing", which has four washing machines. Infectious fabric, ordinary medical fabric, employee fabric and newborn fabric use one machine respectively. In addition, the laundry is divided into pollution area, semi pollution area and cleaning area 。 After ironing and packing, the fabrics in the cleaning area will be transported separately by a special elevator.

In the city's major public hospitals, medical fabrics are sent to a third-party washing company for cleaning and disinfection. In Ruijin Hospital, the use of "water-soluble packaging bags for infectious fabrics" has become a routine. In short, after the medical fabrics to be cleaned are put into the bags, the bags will break and dissolve after exceeding the sterilization standard temperature. It is not only medical fabrics that cause nosocomial infection, but also hand hygiene, towels, floor towels and other small details of medical staff may leave potential risks for nosocomial infection. Based on this, advanced management experience and concept are also constantly introduced. At the end of 2015, the general ward complex of Ruijin Hospital was put into use. The hospital took the lead in establishing the "dishcloth dishcloth cleaning center" and introducing the city's first "German dishcloth cleaning and disinfection system". In addition, the "color separation management method" has also been adopted by some medical institutions, so as to achieve "one table one towel, one room one towel".

Pay attention to the qualification threshold and training of the third party

How to realize the supervision of medical fabric washing? Shi Weiming, senior quality control and compliance director of Shanghai Jiahui International Hospital, suggested that most medical institutions implement outsourcing services of third-party washing companies. This market needs professional threshold and qualification, and regular monitoring and inspection should be carried out. The reporter learned that "basic standards and management specifications of medical disinfection supply center (Trial)" has made clear provisions on this: as a disinfection supply institution providing services for medical institutions, washing enterprises should complete corresponding adjustment before June 1, 2019, and obtain "medical institution practice license".

Ni Yuxing believes that in addition to ensuring the compliance of cleaning and disinfection, medical fabrics must also avoid mixing with medical waste. Medical waste, including masks and hats used by doctors in the operating room, infusion skin strips used by nurses, etc., can sometimes be put in the pocket of white coats and forgotten to take out, which may cause hospital sense of danger. "If the first pass of the hospital is not kept, the third-party washing company is not clear about the harm of medical waste, which may cause serious adverse consequences after being directly thrown together with domestic waste."

In Ruijin Hospital, Jiahui international hospital and other hospital sense control benchmarking medical institutions, in addition to the monthly training for new employees, the old employees also receive regular and repeated training, and always tighten the "hospital sense" string.