Healthcare-associated infections – or HCAIs – are a common problem in hospitals, occurring in many forms, from C. diff and norovirus to pneumonia and MRSA. For vulnerable patients who are recovering from serious injury, surgery, or illness, even a mild infection can have potentially serious consequences; in fact, 3.5 per cent of patients who acquire a HCAI die from their infection, despite the majority of these deaths being preventable.
Therefore, infection control is critical in hospitals, and one innovative solution that can help to prevent the spread of HCAIs is the dissolvable laundry bag. These bags offer numerous benefits for hospitals, from more effective containment of bodily fluids to enhanced efficiency, which we’ll outline in this article.
Improving Infection Control In Hospitals With NHS Laundry Bags
Adherence To NHS Hygiene Standards
Dissolvable laundry bags are designed to meet rigorous NHS standards such as CFPP01-04, which establish the framework for infection prevention and control in hospitals. By using these bags, hospitals can ensure they comply with these guidelines, thereby enhancing overall patient and staff safety.
Enhanced Efficiency
A significant advantage of dissolvable laundry bags is their ability to provide a safe means of storing, packaging, transporting, and sorting contaminated linens. By minimising direct contact and handling of dirty laundry, the bags reduce the risk of cross-contamination and the spread of pathogens among hospital staff and patients.
Promotion Of Effective Hand Hygiene
By reducing the need for direct handling of soiled linens, dissolvable laundry bags indirectly promote better hand hygiene practices within hospitals. Less handling means fewer opportunities for contamination, while a policy of containment will encourage healthcare workers to regularly wash their hands during their shifts, thereby reducing the transmission of bacteria and viruses.
Containment Of Harmful Pathogens
Dissolvable laundry bags completely contain microorganisms and bodily fluids within the bag, which is crucial to reduce the overall risk of HCAIs. Pathogens from even heavily soiled laundry are prevented from escaping into the hospital environment during the handling and laundering processes, thereby helping to maintain high standards of cleanliness.
Safe Management Of Blood And Bodily Fluids
Linens in hospitals often come into contact with blood and bodily fluids, which can carry a variety of viruses, ranging from the highly dangerous, such as HIV and hepatitis, to the unpleasant, for example norovirus and Covid-19. Dissolvable laundry bags facilitate the safe management of hazardous materials, ensuring that potentially infectious substances are securely contained and managed, thus protecting hospital personnel and patients.
Safe Disposal Of Waste
Dissolvable laundry bags for the NHS are designed to securely contain contaminated contents until the seams dissolve in hot water during the wash cycle and the bag opens. This streamlines waste management by eliminating the need to manually separate and dispose of contaminated bags. All contaminants are effectively neutralised in the wash and laundry workers can focus on returning linens, scrubs, and uniforms to use, thereby reducing the need for extensive stockpiles of spares.
Improve Your Hospital’s Infection Control Measures
To find out more about our laundry bags that enable far safer handling of contaminated items, please get in touch with SliK-PAK today to chat to our team.
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