5.

LAUNDRY SERVICES
5.1 Overview
Laundry and linen service is one of the vital department of the hospital.
Criticism of linen service is one of the most frequently heard complaints in the hospital.
Attention to patient's personal needs and com fort is as important as the physician's
medication, the care tendered by the nurse and appetizing food served promptly and
attractively.
An adequate supply of clean linen sufficient for the comfort and safety of the patient
thus becomes imperative.
Besides helping in maintaining a clean environment which is aestheticaly significant to
patients, clean linen is a vital element in providing high quality medical care.
The other aspect of this is the personnel appearance of the staff who attend on patients.
Pleasant, neatly-dressed employees in fresh, neat, uniforms go a long way in creating a
positive image of the hospital.
Areliable laundry service is of the utmost importance to the hospital.
changes.
In today's medical care facilities, patients expect daily linen
frequently.
In some areas, linen has to be changed even more
laundry and the capacity of
This rigorous schedule can be very exacting on both the
linen to withstand repeated cycles of use and wash. hospital should have a sufficient
To enable the laundry to meet such a demand, the
quantity of linen for circulationand to provide a rest period in storage.
 5.2Functions
1. Collection of or receiving soiled and infected linen.
2. Processing soiled linen through laundry equipment. This includes
sorting, sluicing and
disinfecting, washing, extracting,conditioning, ironing, pressing and folding.
3. Inspection and repair of damaged articles, their condemnation and replacement.
4. Assembling and packing specially items and linen packs for
sterilization.
5. Distributing processed linen to the respective user departments.
6. Maintenance and control of active and back-up inventories and processed
5.3 Location
linen.
The laundry should be located as to have ample daylight and natural ventilation.
Ideally, it should be on the ground floor of an isolated building connected or adjacent to
the power plant.
This is because laundry is one of the largest users of power, steam and water.
Alocation that allows movement of linen by the shortest route saves effort and time.
The department should also be close to service elevators.
Some hospitals have chutes through which linen bags are dropped to a designated place
from where they are picked up by laundry personnel.
Every time a load of linen is handled, the cost of laundry services goes up.
The location and physical plan are important in keeping the cost down.
One way of doing this is to keep the traffic flowline as short as possible on vertical and
horizontal transportation between the laundry and the user departments.
This can be more easily accomplished in a vertical multi-storeyed building where
services are in the basement.
 5.5 Design
The laundry functions effectively only when it is planned strictly in accordance with the
work sequence, namely, receiving, processing and dispatching.
Fig. shows the flowchart of the laundry showing trends of traffic.
The activities of the hospital laundry are in many ways similar to those in hotels and
other institutions.
However, the hospital laundry also handles speciality items and tasks.
The most important of these being disinfection and infection control
because hospital
laundry processes not only ordinarily soiled linen but also infected or fouled linen.
It should be designed for asepsis and for removal of bacterial
contamination from linen.
Hospital planners and administrations by and large fail to see that
of processing linen in a hospital laundry should follow the the layout and system
sterilization and supply department. principles involved in the central
There should be a strict barrier separation between the
or infected linen on the one hand, and normally soiled linen and fouled
on the other.
between the soiled area and the clean processing area
The latter can be accomplished by
machines in the wall separating the soiled areainstalling double-door, pass through washing
and the clean
Linen is loaded on the soiled side and processing area.
unloaded on the clean side.
This physical separation of soiled and clean areas has
of laundry and an important bearing on the design
infection control.
Traditionally, the various steps involved in the processing of linen are
same room as, say, in a hotel laundry. carried out, in the
An enormous quantity of
bacteria is released into the air of the
sorting linen before wash. processing area while
This airborne contamination
clean processed linen that is pervades the whole area and eventually settles
down on
This should be avoideddelivered
to the patient care areas.
by separating clean and
The plan of a hospital laundry soiled areas.
is given in following Fig,
5.1.
 O0000
Press Issue
Counter Distribution
PrEKcessed Area

Manager Clean
Trolleys

Flat Ironer
Hygiene
Dryets
Washing

Chenical
Stere

Receiving. Soring

Fig. 5.1 Plan of aLaundry

5.8 Selection of Equipment
Automatic machine and labour saving devices have resulted in economics in the
of personnel and operational time, increased productivity, better number
power, steam and washing materials, and maximum utilization of men utilization of water, heat
and machines.
Some of the features commonly focused are automatic formula
dispensers, automatic
operation controls, sorting and counting devices, machines combining washing, rinsing and
extraction, and flat work folding machines for automatic folding.
The solution of equipment of a proper size is of utmost importance for balanced and
economical production.
Laundry equipments should be carefully selected.
The following factors should be kept in mind:
1. Reasonable capital cost.
2. Reliability of design and compliance with the Bureau of Indian Standards.
3. Availability of spare parts and ease of maintenance.
4. Efficiency in working under normal conditions.
5. Economy in consumption of utilities like water, power, steam, etc. and in
washing materials and other consumables.
6. Continuity of workflow and reduction of manual effort.
5.8.1 List of Equipment
1. Washer-extractor sluicing machine.
2. Double-door washing machine.
3. Hydro-extractor.
4. Machines combining washing, rinsing andextraction.
5. Flat work ironer, also called rotary iron or calendar,
6. Tumble dryer.
7. Uility press.
8. Mushroom press.
9. Table trolley.
10.Hand iron.
11.Dry linen trolley.
12.Wet linen trolley.
13.Linen hamper.
14.Hanger trolley.
15.Distribution trolley.
16.Motorized sewing machine.
17.Platform scale.
18.Air compressor.