5 steps of washing – how healthcare workwear is cleaned in a hospital laundry

At Medanta’s Jokilaakso Hospital laundry, up to a thousand kilograms of laundry are washed every weekday. The journey of dirty laundry involves several steps. Did you know that it is safer to wash work clothes in a professional laundry than in a home washing machine?

Washing healthcare work clothes and textiles in a professional laundry is significantly more controlled than home washing from a hygiene and safety perspective. Laundries strictly follow textile washing instructions, systematically monitor washing processes, and take care of the daily cleaning of machines.

In Medanta’s Jokilaakso Hospital laundry in Jämsä, dirty and clean textiles are separated into their own dedicated areas, which minimizes the risk of cross-contamination throughout the entire washing process.

The laundry also closely monitors washing temperatures and the execution of wash programs. In a home machine, an overstuffed drum can prevent the temperature from reaching the required level, meaning the washing result may not meet healthcare hygiene requirements. In professional laundries, textiles are also washed with fragrance-free and skin-friendly detergents designed for professional use.

Responsibility is a key part of Medanta's operations, including textile maintenance. In laundry operations, attention is paid to environmentally friendly practices and the longest possible life cycle for materials. Efforts are made to find new uses for discarded textiles, for example, through recycling.

Professional textile cleaning consists of several strictly controlled steps. Here is an example of the journey that dirty hospital laundry takes at the Jämsä Jokilaakso Hospital laundry before being returned to use, clean and safe.

1. Laundry arrives at the laundry facility

The packer on duty collects the dirty laundry from the hospital along the hospital corridor between the laundry and the hospital. In the hospital, laundry is stored in laundry bags in department cold storage or packed directly into roll containers. The packer is the contact person between the hospital and the laundry. They are also responsible for answering the laundry phone during the day.

2. Laundry is unloaded and sorted

The laundry worker receives the dirty laundry brought by the packer on the "dirty" side of the facility. They unload the laundry from the roll containers and sort it by textile type into their own carts: for example, bed linen in one cart, patient clothing in another, and work uniforms in a third. After this, the laundry carts are weighed on a large scale to determine how much the laundry weighs and which machine is suitable for that amount of laundry.

3. The washing machine cleans the laundry

The laundry worker puts the textiles into the washing machines and selects the wash program according to the textile's washing instructions. The automation dispenses the detergents. Anyone working on the dirty side is not allowed on the clean side of the laundry until their hands have been washed and work clothes changed.

Laundries also handle isolation laundry, which contains bacteria or other pathogens. This laundry is processed in the facility separately from other laundry. The laundry worker handling isolation laundry wears protective clothing: coveralls, gloves, and a respirator. The dissolvable laundry bag is placed in the washing machine closed and washed in a program intended for isolation laundry.

4. Clean laundry is dried and finished

Employees working on the clean side of the laundry receive the clean, washed laundry on the other side of the wall. The washing machines have doors on opposite sides of the machines. Employees direct the damp laundry into dryers or a finishing tunnel.

For example, hospital staff work uniforms do not go into a dryer; instead, a laundry employee hangs them on hangers on a clothing rack and directs them into the finishing tunnel. The finishing tunnel is a steam cabinet through which the work uniforms pass, making them ready for use afterward.

Linens go into a dryer and then through a mangle. The steam from the mangle kills the last of the bacteria, and mangling reduces dust from the textiles. Pillowcases, for example, are treated on both sides in the mangle. Linens are not dried completely in the dryer; the moisture level is such that the textile "opens up" in preparation for the finishing touch of the mangle. Mangling does not work if the textile is bone dry.

5. Laundry is packed and returned to the customer

The laundry employee on packing duty packs the clean laundry from the shelves into roll containers and takes it back to the hospital along the hospital corridor. Clean laundry is taken to the hospital within a couple of days.

After washing, the laundry employee folds face masks in batches of five or ten into bags, which are tightly sealed by heat sealing. The bags are then packed into plastic boxes. The person packing the masks wears a respirator and gloves. The mask packing area is kept clean, and its surroundings are disinfected regularly.