Everything you need to know about hospital linen (but didn’t know to ask)
In a hospital setting where staff rely on sterile materials and disinfecting agents to reduce risk of infection, how do healthcare workers handle their dirty linen?
“Every piece of linen can be cleaned to meet infection prevention standards,” said Rachel Handel, an outsourced services coordinator with YNHHS Corporate Supply Chain. “Linen should never go into the garbage no matter how much it is soiled or blood soaked. All used linen should be put in the soiled linen containers. That includes linens used for patients with infectious diseases such as COVID-19, C. diff, MRSA or monkeypox. Every piece can be cleaned by our vendor.”
While many medical supplies are designed for one-time use, hospital linens are reusable, Handel said. Linens include bed sheets, pillowcases, blankets, underpads, towels, patient gowns, scrubs, lab coats, curtains and mops. YNHHS’ vendor, Unitex, specializes in processes that eliminate the presence of harmful bacteria and meet infection prevention standards.
“When people toss linen in the trash, it’s like throwing money away too,” Handel said, explaining that the health system’s linen supply is through a rental company. “Our linen rental program charges us for what’s ordered each week. What we order needs to match what we return for cleaning. When the soiled linen isn’t returned, we pay more to replace those that end up in the trash as well as those that are being hoarded in the closets or blanket warmers.”
As an example, Handel said it costs about 46 cents to rent a hospital bed sheet but the price jumps to $3.91 to replace the one thrown away or missing from the inventory.
Putting it into greater perspective, Handel and her colleagues calculated that the health system – across all settings – uses 14 million pounds of linen each year. They discovered that thousands of pounds of linen end up in the trash each week, which has contributed to an additional $863,000 in replacement costs for linens this year alone.
Another seemingly harmless habit adds to escalating replacement fees. “Clean linen should be brought into the patient’s room as needed, Handel said. “You never want to bring three blankets into the room when the patient needs only one. By doing this, you’re wasting the clean linen because even if it is not used it must go into the soiled linen when the patient is discharged.”
What if you find a clean linen item that is damaged? “Don’t throw these items away! Place the item in the designated rejected linen bag. Every unit has one. Your department will get credit for any rejected items, and the plant will replace them with new ones,” she explained.
If you have questions about the linen rental program, contact Handel at [email protected].
