Barrier Washing Requires The Best Attention To Detail

Barrier washing systems have become most important over the past years particularly in respect of hospital and care home work. Laundry from these applications often have the potential to spread infections and germs at an alarming rate and a great deal of work has gone into the removal of bacteria from soiled laundry and the safe return to the work place that it has come from. It is obvious that any infection being returned to the hospital or care home can cause very severe problems and in past times did cause such problems. The Great Plague of yesteryear wiped out massive numbers of the population throughout Europe when it was carried by clothes from the Far East. The sheer bulk of the work does require an extreme amount of care and attention and there are a full set of legal obligations that police the area. The Laundry manufacturers have put a great deal of effort into this area and have developed a full range of machines to meet the requirements.

Any barrier system should ideally be separate to any normal laundry set up and the machines should be fully compliant to the barrier system. Washing machines require all the soiled laundry to be sorted and checked prior to washing. Soiled laundry should be immediately placed in separate laundry bags and these must be kept separate from clean laundry and clean laundry storage areas. When the laundry arrives at the washing machine it should be separated into its constituent groups and each group loaded separately. The washing machine should have an entry door on the soiled side and the exit door on the other side so there is a soiled and clean area totally away from each other. There are 2 washing cycles that disinfect according to the Robert Koch Institute that are generally used:

1) 90 degrees with a ten minute holding time or

2) 85 degrees with a ten minute holding time

Chemical / thermal systems can use a temperature between 30 and 70 degrees for 10 to 20 minutes using various chemical disinfection agents on more delicate textiles.

Washing machines designed for barrier usage have electronic programmes carefully designed so that they can control the temperatures within very tight limits.

Washing when it exits the machine should be quickly processed through ironing and folding and then secured in plastic and transported in disinfected bags. It is imperative to keep the laundry progressing and not leave anything to chance by leaving it around overnight. Operators on the clean and soiled side should be separate to maintain strict isolation procedures.