Packers and washers handle up to a thousand kilos of laundry every day – good teamwork keeps Medanta's laundry running

The daily operations at Medanta’s Jokilaakso Hospital laundry are kept running by seven employees. They are all aware of the significant role their work plays in patient safety. “You never move from the dirty side to the clean side without changing your clothes,” explains team manager Iida Rantanen.

Joel Jokinen from Jämsä sorts different colored textiles in the dirty laundry room of Medanta’s Jokilaakso Hospital laundry. Before the pile of clothes collected in the carts is submerged into the depths of the washing machines, it is weighed on a large, square scale on the floor.

Next to the wall, three washing machines hum steadily. At peak times, they process up to a thousand kilograms of laundry every weekday from seven in the morning onwards. A wash cycle lasts about an hour, while smaller loads take half that time. The washing detergents are dispensed automatically.

In the laundry office, team leader Iida Rantanen is preparing shift schedules for the coming weeks. The phone rings, and Rantanen calmly answers the customer’s questions. She explains that the laundry's daily schedule is carefully planned.

“We deliver the agreed amount of clean laundry to all wards every day,” Rantanen says.

Rantanen, who has worked at the laundry for a long time, ensures that the daily operations run smoothly and that each of the seven employees knows their place in the laundry chain.

Textile safety is part of patient safety

The operations of Jämsä’s Jokilaakso Hospital are managed by Jokilaakson Terveys, a joint venture between the Pihlajalinna group, the City of Jämsä, and the Central Finland Health Care District. The Jokilaakso Hospital laundry, located on the same premises, was transferred to Medanta in April 2019.

In addition to hospital workwear, patient clothing, bed linen, cleaning textiles, and protective masks, the laundry also handles textile maintenance for service homes and laundry for the City of Jämsä’s daycare centers.

Textile safety is part of patient safety. According to the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, there are approximately 100,000 healthcare-associated infections in Finland annually. The Communicable Diseases Act requires healthcare units to monitor and prevent the presence of infections and microbes.

Industrial washing of workwear and textiles is safer than using a home machine, according to Rantanen. The laundry strictly follows textile washing instructions, and the machines are cleaned at the end of the day. The work is responsible and the results are high-quality.

“We keep our dirty and clean sides separate, so the laundry is never contaminated at any point. We are also able to monitor temperatures precisely: if a home machine is full of laundry, the temperature may not reach the desired level. We only use professional, eco-friendly, fragrance-free, and skin-friendly detergents,” Rantanen explains.

The laundry chain involves many stages

The laundry staff on shift collect the dirty laundry from the hospital and bring it to the laundry room via the hospital corridor. The employee on duty receives the sacks stacked on roll containers on the dirty side of the laundry and sorts the laundry into carts according to the textile: bed linen in one cart, pajamas in another, in accordance with the washing instructions. Those working on the dirty side are not allowed on the clean side until they have washed their hands and changed clothes.

“The employees working in the center of the laundry receive the clean, washed laundry on the other side of the wall. The washing machines have hatches on opposite sides. From the washing machine, the laundry continues its journey to the dryer and then to the mangle. Workwear travels directly from the washing machine to the finishing tunnel,” Rantanen explains.

In the middle of the laundry, in the clean laundry area, there are three dryers. The finishing tunnel is a steam cabinet through which work clothes, neatly hung on hangers, travel. The cabinet steams and dries the clothes. Bed linen, on the other hand, is finished with a mangle, whose steam kills any remaining bacteria. Both sides of the pillowcases are mangled.

“We also wash isolation laundry, such as the fabric Medanta face masks used in home care and physiotherapy. After washing, we fold the masks into bags of five and ten, which are tightly sealed with heat sealing. We pack the bags into plastic boxes. The packaging takes place according to the washing process, and our infection safety is at a top level. The entire washing process applies the hygiene standard (EN-SFS 14065), which concerns textiles used in the healthcare sector. Quality assurance is carried out in accordance with RABC laundry standards,” Rantanen continues.

Today, Eemeli Oksanen is bagging masks. He is wearing a respirator on his face and gloves on his hands.

The laundry also acts as a kind of “testing laboratory,” as the masks have been washed over a hundred times in the past year. There is no wear and tear visible; the masks are just as usable as before.

“The mask packaging room is kept clean, and its surroundings are disinfected regularly,” Iida Rantanen says.

Discarded textiles are recycled

Once the laundry is washed, the workwear and textiles travel back to the hospital in roll containers.

“We do not store clean laundry in our premises; we aim to take them to the hospital within a couple of days.”

Without seamless cooperation, textile maintenance would not be successful. Each workstation in the laundry has one or two employees at a time. They rotate through the tasks every week or two, so their job description varies.

Rantanen praises the team’s good morale.

“It’s nice to come to work when our team spirit is good.”

Medanta’s production strictly follows quality and environmental standards. Ecological and environmental actions are also regularly highlighted in the laundry’s operations.

“For example, we reduce waste generation by sending discarded textiles to rug weavers. Even now, there are several sacks waiting in that roll container that will surely be picked up for recycling during the summer.”

“The job gets done and we help each other out”
Joel Jokinen, laundry employee

 

“I started working at the laundry in October 2019. I am currently on laundry duty. Our work is important. They would certainly be a bit puzzled at the hospital if they didn't have clean laundry. We have a good team spirit here. Sometimes it’s busy, but the job always gets done and colleagues help each other out. I come to work every morning in a good mood.”

“We only work when we are healthy”
Marjaliisa Skouri, laundry employee

“I have worked at the laundry for over five years. I like my job because my job description varies and we have a really nice team and good spirits at the laundry. Clean textiles are also part of patient safety in healthcare. We do our part to ensure textile safety: we only work when we are healthy and handle the laundry according to the instructions.

I like laundry duty the most, where I work independently at my own pace. On the dirty side, I sort dirty laundry into different washing machines. Our work is like a game where everyone has their own position: if one is missing, everyone else’s work suffers. We have a lot of different skills here. One of our employees is a trained vehicle mechanic and is able to provide first aid to a broken machine before we can get a repair person on-site.”