R432-100-36. Laundry Service

  (1) Direction of the laundry service shall be provided by a person whose qualifications, authority, responsibilities and duties are approved by the administrator.

  (2) Hospitals using commercial linen services shall require written assurance from the commercial service that standards in this subsection are maintained.

  (a) Clean linen shall be completely packaged and protected from contamination until received by the hospital.

  (b) The use of a commercial linen service does not relieve the hospital from its quality improvement responsibilities.

  (3) Hospitals that maintain an in-house laundry service must have equipment, supplies and staff available to meet the needs of the patients.

  (a) Soiled linen shall be collected in a manner to minimize cross-contamination. Containers shall be properly closed as filled and before further transport.

  (i) Soiled linen shall be sorted only in a sorting area.

  (ii) Handwashing is required after handling soiled linen and prior to handling clean items.

  (iii) Employees handling soiled linen shall wear protective clothing which must be removed before leaving the soiled work area.

  (iv) Soiled linen shall be transported separately from clean linen.

  (b) The hospital shall maintain a supply of clean linen.

  (i) Clean linen shall be handled and stored in a manner to minimize contamination from surface contact or airborne deposition.

  (ii) Clean linen shall be stored in enclosed closet areas or carts.

  (iii) Clean linen shall be covered during transport.

  (4) The hospital is responsible to launder employee scrubs that are worn in the following areas:

  (a) surgical areas;

  (b) other areas as required by the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

  (5) If hospital employee scrubs are designated as uniforms that may be worn to and from work, policies and procedures shall be developed and implemented defining the scope and usage of scrubs as uniforms including hospital storage of employee scrubs, and provisions for hospital-provided scrubs in case of contamination.