TRSA Introduces Customer Membership

Posted November 3, 2017 at 5:21 pm

Based on the tremendous growth, awareness and interest in Hygienically Clean certification, TRSA is launching a new membership category for individuals responsible for overseeing such services to their facilities. These customers will have access to specific TRSA best practices and resources including training materials to help them better manage the use of linen, uniforms, garments and other reusable textiles, as well as facility services.

“Since the launch of Hygienically Clean, TRSA has been reinvesting all proceeds from the programs into educating consumers regarding the importance of training and proper handling of clean and soiled textiles,” said TRSA President & CEO Joseph Ricci. “This has resulted in the development and distribution of research, white papers, webinars and interactive training regarding best practices to thousands of individuals responsible for selection and management of linen, uniform and facility services.”

Through outreach campaigns including presentations, healthcare and food safety conference exhibits, webinars, social media and advertising, TRSA has generated nearly 3,000 individual interactions and tens of thousands of digital contacts. These have helped medical facility staff properly handle soiled and clean linens, directly reflecting the success in communicating how Hygienically Clean Healthcare is unparalleled in verifying laundries’ best management practices (BMPs) and quantifying healthcare textiles’ cleanliness to ensure they pose negligible risk to medical facility staff and patients.

“The response to this outreach proves that the foundation of Hygienically Clean is stronger than any other healthcare laundry certification program attempted,” Ricci said. “Initiated by linen, uniform and facility services operators and continuously executed by them at the program’s highest ranks of management, Hygienically Clean helps demonstrate that certified facilities know the proper process and outcome measures of effective healthcare laundering.” As subject matter experts on quality assurance and BMPs in the industry, launderers serve on the Hygienically Clean Healthcare Advisory Board with medical professionals who offer scientific expertise and a laundry customer’s perspective.

The ranks of Hygienically Clean Healthcare certified facilities recently eclipsed the 125 mark; another 40 are in the process of becoming certified. In addition, 47 plants have been certified Hygienically Clean Food Safety and 49 others have pursued this certification as well as the recently launched Hygienically Clean Food Service and Hospitality designations.

By partnering with organizations such as the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN) and the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology in launching its APIC Industry Perspectives website, viewers have been attracted to these Hygienically Clean initiatives:

The Six C’s: Handling Soiled Linen in a Healthcare Environment. This training video aimed at helping hospital staff comply with OSHA regulations drew more than 1,000 unique page views over four months on the site. The APIC Hygienically Clean page linked viewers to the YouTube trailer previewing the video, shipped free to them upon their request by mail on a flash drive. Since The Six C’s premiered in late 2015, the trailer has been viewed 2,100 times. There have been more than 1,000 requests for the flash drive and previous DVD version, with 300 of these requests in 2017.

Handling Clean Linen in a Healthcare Environment. From another APIC Hygienically Clean webpage, more than 100 viewers downloaded this whitepaper, which advises medical facility staff on tactics to avoid compromising the safety of healthcare textiles once these are within their facilities. Promotion via social media and ads in other business/scientific media have generated another 50 downloads to date, with hundreds more anticipated due to an ongoing campaign with Infection Control Today.

Hygienically Clean had its most successful exhibit at June’s APIC Annual Conference in Portland, OR, capturing contact data on about 180 attendees of this show. Earlier in the year, in the first promotion of the certification to the outpatient/specialty medical market, more than 120 leads were captured from attendees of the Ambulatory Surgery Center Association (ASCA) Expo in May in Washington. Ads in ASCA’s e-newsletter produced almost 140 clicks, prompting viewers to learn more and download the latest Hygienically Clean white paper, Environmental Safety in Outpatient Care.

Previously, Hygienically Clean exhibited at the annual Association for the Healthcare Environment (AHE) Exchange, with plans to return in 2018.

These contacts created awareness and generated prospects for the first-ever Hygienically Clean webinar created for the benefit of healthcare professionals. What Healthcare Laundry Inspectors Uncover, aired in August, attracted more than 100 of them, detailing the Hygienically Clean Healthcare inspection checklist.

The Hygienically Clean Healthcare program has been recognized for its international applicability. Most recently, it fueled TRSA’s launch of Hygienically Clean Asia with the China Healthcare Laundry Association. Hygienically Clean standards parallel the European Union’s and the Germany-based Certification Association for Professional Textile Services’ laundry guidelines. Since the 2012 advent of the program, collaboration on such standards has continued with the European Textile Services Association and Australian Laundry Association.

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