TRSA Paper Explains Hygiene Standard

Posted August 15, 2013 at 6:48 pm

Download the White Paper

Nothing Left Behind: Quantifying Hygienically Clean Removes All Doubt, a white paper on the need for healthcare providers to demand the clearly defined level of textile product cleanliness that TRSA Hygienically Clean certified laundries provide, is set for distribution by e-mail on Aug. 19 to subscribers of Infection Control Today (ICT) magazine.

The paper explains the timeliness of adhering to such a standard in light of European research that provides scientific, quantitative definitions that explicitly establish and validate levels that define “hygienically clean.” Written by TRSA, the document highlights the emerging importance to providers of receiving quantified and verified indicators of textile hygiene, as they are pressed to gauge the quality of their services through scientifically rigorous and valid assessment of performance—as opposed to softer measures of structures or processes.

“Hygienically clean” is the established threshold that guides the reduction of pathogens on textile

products to levels that pose no threat of human illness, TRSA says. Microbial levels established 30 years ago by the Certification Association for Professional Textile Services Administration (CAPTSA) for laundered textiles (20 colony forming units [CFU] per square decimeter for healthcare) serve as the basis for the Hygienically Clean certification. The European Union (EU) has since adopted this figure.

CAPTSA has operated for nearly 50 years, serving 400 members in 15 European countries, Japan,China and United Arab Emirates.

Adoption of such a clear and universal maximum is the best way to introduce to North America the protocols of the EU, which require microbial testing at various stages of laundering to indicate the absence of potentially infectious pathogens, TRSA says.

When TRSA’s Healthcare Committee initiated the Healthcare Laundry Accreditation Council (HLAC) and its certification program in 2004, the paper notes, it was long acknowledged that proper commercial laundering formulas (calibrated time, temperature, chemistry and mechanical action) would produce clean, safe reusable textiles. TRSA invested in developing HLAC to define best healthcare laundry practices (measures of structure and process).

TRSA’s Hygienically Clean program reflects the evolution of healthcare laundry certification in light of growing global concerns about infection control, with the ultimate objective of the complete elimination—nothing left behind—of potentially harmful microbial content, with the caveat that potential elimination is meaningless unless properly measured and documented (gauging performance).

The paper includes data from WFK Cleaning Technology Institute, Krefeld, Germany, which reported the findings of year-long quarterly testing in 2011 of 10 laundries in Europe that were required to comply with the 20 CFU standard for healthcare. All succeeded in all quarters. WFK concluded that these results demonstrate that laundries subjected to limits, “can guarantee the microbiological quality of their expedition (ready for shipment) textiles.”

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