With heightened focus on health and safety in recent years, sanitation and infection control practices have come under the microscope.
While standards detailed in the AS 4146:2000 Laundry Practice apply to all businesses with laundry facilities, aged care facilities face additional pressure to comply for the health and safety of their residents, meaning that the partnership between equipment and chemical suppliers is critical.
Facilities rely on equipment suppliers and chemical providers working in partnership to deliver effective wash programs for their on-premise laundries so that they can meet and exceed disinfection and hygiene standards.
To create an effective environment for chemical action that meets disinfection requirements, washers must be programmed to operate within the correct time and temperature parameters.
Laundry chemicals can then be introduced into the washer to aid in cleaning and disinfecting soiled garments.
Choosing the correct wash process for the items being laundered is key to minimising mechanical and chemical wear.
Disinfection can be achieved by 2 different methods:
- Thermal. The washer is programmed to wash soiled linen at a minimum of 65°C for at least 10 minutes, or at a minimum of 71°C for at least 3 minutes.
- Chemical. This method is effective for heat sensitive linen that cannot be thermally disinfected, using a wash cycle and appropriate chemicals that disinfect to the same standard as thermal, these chemicals commonly include ozone, chlorine bleach or peracetic acid.
After washing via either method, tensile strength loss can be measured to determine the impact of each cycle. After 50 cycles, less than 25% total textile wear is acceptable, while less than 10% is considered excellent.
Fortunately, the team at Richard Jay has expertise and capability in both these areas.
With our range of Electrolux Professional laundry equipment and our JayChem laundry chemical solutions, we have your residential aged care laundry requirements covered, ensuring that the 5 factors that determine outstanding wash results are in perfect balance:
- Time
- Temperature
- Chemical
- Mechanical action
- Liquor ratio
Achieving the right balance is critical for superior outcomes, in particular, high chemical residuals & pH can cause a range of problems in the laundry, including:
- Chemical wear / damage
- Yellowing of fabric
- Skin irritation
- Bad odour
- Fading of coloured fabrics
- Finishing problems such as wrinkling
Our solutions ensure that the challenges noted above are mitigated, extending garment lifespans.
Most importantly, every laundry solution we supply and install is as unique as the business it’s created for, completely tailored to our clients’ operational requirements and goals. Further to this, having one partner responsible for achieving a clean, crisp, hygienic wash result, means our customers save time, money and above all the stress of dealing with multiple companies and people.
