What's in Your Laundry Facility? It's Time to Find Out!

Tuesday, June 4, 2024

10:00 AM – 11:00 AM CST

Location: Room 301

CE: 1

AEU Credits: 1
CME Credits: 1
CNE Credits: 1
IPCE Credits: 1
IPCH Credits: 1
IPU Credits: 1

Presenter(s)

Kelly Zabriskie, MLS, BS,CIC, FAPIC

Enterprise VP of Infection Prevention/ Regulatory Department Liaison
Jefferson Health
Mount Laurel, New Jersey

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Co-Presenter(s)

Christine C. Zirges, DNP, ACNS-BC, CIC, FAPIC

System Director of Infection Prevention
SSM Health
St Louis, Missouri

Moderator(s)

Crystal Heishman, MBA, MSN, RN, ONC, CIC, CRNI, CPHQ, FAPIC

Director, Infection Prevention & Control; IP Coordinators Disinfection, Sterilization, and Facilities; System Vascular Access Specialties
UofL Health
Louisville, Kentucky
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Carol McLay, DrPH, MPH, RN, CIC, FAPIC

Consultant
Infection Control International
LEWISVILLE, North Carolina

Disclosure(s):

Kelly Zabriskie, MLS, BS,CIC, FAPIC: HR Pharma: Consultant/Advisory Board (Ongoing), Content Reviewer (Ongoing)

Christine C. Zirges, DNP, ACNS-BC, CIC, FAPIC: No financial relationships to disclose

Crystal Heishman, MBA, MSN, RN, ONC, CIC, CRNI, CPHQ, FAPIC: Nozin: Travel and conference fees for ID Week - Poster Presentation (Terminated, October 13, 2023)

Carol McLay, DrPH, MPH, RN, CIC, FAPIC: No financial relationships to disclose

Session Description: Epidemiologic links associating nosocomial outbreaks with exposure to healthcare linens (HCL) have been observed. Though the number reported is small and identified as low risk by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), transmission of pathogens through contaminated HCLs has occurred. Pathogens may persist for weeks on HCLs with elevated bacterial loads. It is difficult to determine if the contamination has occurred via the healthcare environment or from the multiple handling steps at the laundry processing plant. This reinforces the need to include HCL management and onsite auditing into the healthcare facility’s infection control plan and risk assessment.
Many healthcare systems utilize contracted services for HCL processing. Linen processing plants are often large, choreographed workflows which can have anywhere from 10 to 12 transition points for linens. Within these various steps are infection control processes that include airflow, water temperature, personal protective equipment (PPE), and dirty to clean throughput which includes transportation via truck back to the healthcare facility. As with many critical and complex workflows in healthcare, gaps in processes occur which lead to the risk of healthcare associated infections. It becomes imperative that an infection preventionist (IP) performs an onsite evaluation of the linen processing plant utilizing an evidence-based checklist to assess the HCL processing steps and transition points. The information obtained should help drive decisions on future contract elements.
Providing the IP with this information and breaking down each area of an established auditing checklist will help them become confident in evaluating the linen processing plant’s program and identifying any breaches that could lead to contamination of their HCLs. Confidence and competency in this field will also help the IP to advocate for having a seat at the table with the linen plant’s contract negotiations.

Learning Objectives:

Upon completion, participant will be able to discuss outbreaks associated with contaminated healthcare linens.
Upon completion, participant will be able to define the tools and guidelines to use when visiting a healthcare linen processing plant.
Upon completion, participant will be able to confidently conduct an audit of the processing of healthcare linens, the healthcare plant environment, and the storage and transport of healthcare linens.