TRSA Webinar Focuses on the Risks of Home Laundering Scrubs

TRSA hosted a webinar on June 3 to examine the risks of washing scrubs at home and share best practices for ensuring they are hygienically clean. The webinar is part of TRSA’s ongoing educational series on infection prevention and the safe use of reusable healthcare textiles.

Titled “The Risks of Home Laundering Facility-Provided Scrubs,” the webinar was free to attend and designed for frontline healthcare workers, infection preventionists, facility administrators, environmental services professionals and healthcare decision-makers. More than 500 professionals signed up for the hour-long presentation.

The webinar was hosted by Liz Barber, BSN, RN, clinical educator, HandCraft Linen and Uniform Specialists; Scott Delin, VP, indirect healthcare sales, Fashion Seal Healthcare; and Dyan Troxel, MSN, RN, director of clinical education, HandCraft Linen & Uniform Specialists. The speakers addressed the following topics:

• Why home laundering may fail to disinfect healthcare apparel
• Risks to frontline workers, patients and communities
• The role of Hygienically Clean certified commercial healthcare laundries in infection prevention
• Best practices for handling reusable scrubs and uniforms

The webinar was timely, as a new study, “Domestic laundering of healthcare textiles: Disinfection efficacy and risks of antibiotic resistance transmission,” funded by De Montfort University, the Textile Services Association (TSA-UK) and TRSA, found that many home washing machines fail to eliminate harmful bacteria – even at high temperatures – reinforcing long-standing concerns about the role of domestic laundering in the spread of infection and antimicrobial resistance.

A recording of the June 3 event will soon be available on the TRSA website. The TRSA Healthcare Committee created the three-part webinar series to help infection preventionists, healthcare professionals and industry stakeholders better understand best practices for safe textile processing and handling.

The final session in the three-part series, which is sponsored by Ecolab, will take place on July 10. The topic is “Linen Handling Best Practices for Infection Control.” Click here to learn more about the series and register for the upcoming webinar.