The first firestorm I can recall in healthcare laundry dates to the early ’80s, when an article in a trade publication detailed how two laundry workers had tested positive for HIV/AIDS. It was scary! The two soil sorters in question worked in a Midwestern hospital laundry. Later, it was discovered that the two were domestic partners, so the laundry wasn’t implicated. Speculation arose that healthcare laundry needed to be regulated, but this view subsided.
 
Things changed quickly around 1986 or 1987. At a TRSA Healthcare Seminar in Clearwater, FL. Gina Puglise, a speaker from the Joint Commission ...