NORTH AMERICA
The Healthcare Laundry Accreditation Council (HLAC) warns that there is "legitimate and increasing concern" of a "widespread" and "unsafe" industry practice regarding exchange carts of unused healthcare textiles (HCTs) between hospitals and laundries.
In an article published this month by Facility Care, HLAC board members Gregory Gicewicz and Carol McLay said: "It is an unsafe practice for healthcare laundries to return unused linens on exchange carts from the hospital back to the laundry plant, where those same unused textiles - without being reprocessed - are then topped off with clean linens and returned to the hospital."
In the article, "A Strategy for Overcoming the Hidden Dangers of Improperly Used Exchange Carts," Gicewicz and McLay say there is "legitimate and increasing concern that this practice may be widespread across the industry."
The authors write that HLAC "believes that this improper practice presents numerous opportunities for contamination of textiles."
