Hygienically Clean Earns AORN Seal

Posted October 23, 2015 at 11:14 am

TRSA recently announced that its Hygienically Clean Healthcare Certification program received the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN) Seal of Recognition™ for its certification materials.

The AORN Seal of Recognition confirms the certification program has undergone a thorough quality review by AORN and is consistent with the organization’s Guidelines for Perioperative Practice. According to AORN, this is not a product endorsement but rather a demonstration that the educational and informative material provided about the certification program is sound and reliable. Specifically, the Seal of Recognition recognizes the certification program’s materials on the “Standard for Producing Hygienically Clean Reusable Textiles in the Healthcare Industry.”

“Since the creation of the Hygienically Clean certification in 2012, TRSA has continued its work to raise the bar and standards within the commercial laundry industry through this program,” said Joseph Ricci, president and CEO of TRSA. “We’re honored to have successfully earned AORN’s Seal of Recognition for our Hygienically Clean program and we’ll continue to work with our membership to ensure the industry is held to the highest possible standards of cleanliness and safety.”

To be considered for the Hygienically Clean Certification, facilities handling healthcare linens must submit two random textiles to an independent, TRSA-approved laboratory for bacteriological testing. The samples must pass testing on three consecutive rounds and the facility must pass an inspection prior to qualification.

At the conclusion of the qualification process, facilities must then pass new regularly scheduled testing protocols to maintain the Hygienically Clean Certification. These protocols include instituting the Replicate Organism Detection and Counting (RODAC) microbiological test. Modeled onEuropean standards, facilities pursuing the Hygienically Clean Certification must now submit to RODAC testing four times per year rather than the previous protocol of twice per year. In addition, anotherlayer of twice annual testinginvolvingUnited States Pharmacopeia (USP) 62is required.USP 62 is a recognized testing methodology for seven different microorganisms most commonly found in healthcare environments.

“Hygienically Clean standards have a very large and positive impact on public health in general because they lower the overall community infectious disease risk burden,” said Dr. David F. Goldsmith, MSPH, an occupational and environmental epidemiologist with George Washington University’s Milliken Institute School of Public Health in Washington, DC, who recently conducted a third-party review of the certification program. “TRSA Certification offers a serious marketing advantage versus competitor laundries who have not adopted the Hygienically Clean process.”

According to TRSA, by Dec. 31, 2015, it expects approximately 50% of commercial laundries exclusively handling linens and other textiles from healthcare facilities will have earned its Hygienically Clean certification. Complete information on the program and its newly revised protocols and best practices can be found on the program’s new website at hygienicallyclean.org.

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