Textile service — bed linens, towels, and hygienic laundry handling

Bed linen towels work clothes and curtains are textiles handled daily by service assistants — particularly in hospital services but also widely in facility services. Textiles can carry as much infection as a surface so the same logic applies as in cleaning: separate clean from dirty and break the infection chain.

§Clean and dirty must be separated all the way

The most important principle in textile service is that clean and used laundry must never meet or be carried in the same room or cart without clear separation. Unclean laundry is collected directly at the bed or place of use in closed bags transported separately from clean laundry and stored in separate rooms or cupboards until it is sent for washing.

• 01Collect dirty laundry directly into a closed bag at the point of use
• 02Never carry dirty and clean linen in the same basket or on the same cart
• 03Store clean laundry dry, closed and separated from dirty
• 04Use gloves when handling visibly contaminated linen

§RABC – risk management in the laundry

Hospital textiles that must be hygienically clean are typically washed according to a system called RABC (Risk Analysis and Biocontamination Control), described in the European standard EN 14065. The system resembles HACCP principles from the food sector but is adapted to laundry processes: it identifies where in the process there is risk of microbiological contamination, and establishes control points — e.g. wash temperature, dosing agent, and handling after washing — so the finished linens can be documented as hygienically clean.

§Washing programs and temperature

Temperature and duration in the washing process are crucial for whether microorganisms are actually inactivated. Hospital textiles and other linens with hygiene purity requirements are washed according to programs validated for the purpose — it is not the same program you would use for ordinary clothes at home. Always follow the laundry's or workplace's prescribed program and temperatures for each textile type.

§Storage of clean laundry

Pure linen must be stored dry and protected from dust and contact until it is used – preferably in closed cupboards or shelves separated from dirty areas. Handle pure linen with clean hands and avoid placing it on surfaces that are not cleaned, such as floors or dirty carts.

§Your role in the chain

As a service assistant you are often the link that collects used linen and brings clean linen forward. Although the actual washing takes place elsewhere your handling before and after is crucial for hygiene to hold all the way — a mistake in your part of the chain can contaminate otherwise hygienically washed linen again before it reaches the patient or user.

“Linen is only as hygienic as the weakest handling in the chain allows.”

— Textile hygiene basic rule