In the healthcare laundry industry, compliance is crucial. It ensures that linens are clean, safe, and ready for use by hospital patients and staff. In our recent webinar, “Mastering Compliance: Tips and Strategies for Laundry Inspection Success”, guest speaker and compliance expert Greg Gicewicz shared key strategies to help you build or enhance your compliance program for long-term success.

Benefits of a Solid Compliance Program

Gicewicz explained the laundry “tug of war”, where on one end, compliance is deemed too expensive, a waste of resources, and doing the bare minimum to get out of trouble. But on the other side, one failed inspection can really hurt, customers want to see that your compliant, and penalties for non-compliance can be expensive. So where does the balance lie?

Compliance isn’t just a box that you can tick off once and forget about. Building a successful compliance plan is an ongoing effort that helps patient safety and staff, helps aid infection prevention, can help you avoid legal and regulatory consequences, helps your reputation and employee morale, and helps lower costs in the long run.

Steps to Build a Solid Compliance Program

Starting or revamping a compliance program can seem daunting, but Gicewicz provided a clear path forward. The first step is to conduct a thorough assessment of your facility’s current compliance status.

Once you understand where your facility stands, you can create a detailed compliance plan. This might include updating environmental hygiene policies, establishing process monitoring protocols, and scheduling regular training for staff. Gicewicz emphasized that the goal is to create a program that is not only compliant but also easy to maintain and update as regulations evolve.

The decision to hire a full-time compliance specialist or to outsource this function is another critical consideration. Gicewicz highlighted that while a dedicated compliance officer can be beneficial for larger facilities, outsourcing can be a more practical and cost-effective solution for many.

Outsourcing compliance tasks allows you to bring in specialists who are well-versed in the latest regulations and inspection criteria. These experts can handle everything from preparing documentation to training staff, ensuring that your facility is always ready for an inspection. However, it’s essential to maintain a close connection between the outsourced compliance team and your internal operations leaders to ensure that everyone is aligned on goals and expectations.

Accreditation and Certification: A Starting Point, not a Finish Line

Achieving accreditation or certification, such as from the Healthcare Laundry Accreditation Council (HLAC) or Hygienically Clean from the Textile Rental Services Association (TRSA), is a significant accomplishment. However, Gicewicz emphasized that these credentials should not be viewed as the end of your compliance efforts.

Accreditation means that your facility has met certain standards, but it doesn’t guarantee that you’ll always be compliant. Regular internal audits and continuous monitoring are essential to ensure that your facility remains compliant between official inspections. Adopting a “trust but verify” approach, where you regularly check and validate compliance processes, will help maintain high standards every day.

Producing Hygienically Clean Linen & Common Inspection Failures

Producing hygienically clean linen, especially in healthcare settings, is extremely important for patient and staff safety. However, it doesn’t come without its challenges. Biological testing is a vital component of a comprehensive compliance program. The CDC recommends biological testing only in case of an outbreak, but regular testing can serve as a proactive measure to ensure ongoing safety.

Gicewicz emphasized that inspection failures can occur for a variety of reasons and can have serious consequences, ranging from financial penalties to reputational damage. These failures often stem from overlooked compliance gaps, inadequate staff training, or outdated processes. For example, a facility might fail inspection due to improper storage of linens. If linens are stored in areas with incorrect temperature and humidity levels, they can become contaminated, leading to serious health risks. Another common failure involves inadequate documentation of cleaning and maintenance procedures. Inspectors often require detailed records to ensure that all processes are being followed correctly. If a facility can’t provide up-to-date documentation, it may be flagged for non-compliance.

Final Thoughts: Proactive Compliance is Key for Success and Infection Prevention

Compliance within commercial laundry facilities is a complex but essential part of operations. Regular audits and building a solid compliance plan will help ensure that your facility remains compliant, safe, and ready for any inspection.

For continuing education, aimed at helping healthcare professionals in infection prevention, environmental services, and supply chain, Gicewicz and certified infection preventionist, Missy Travis, from IP&C Consulting created an in-depth Continuing Education Consortium course to provide an overview of healthcare textiles and the healthcare laundry process, with a focus on identifying and minimizing linen contamination risks. The module will walk the learner through the healthcare laundry process, from soil sorting to washing, to patient use.

The interactive course is designed to keep you engaged while deepening your understanding of healthcare linen handling and its vital role in infection prevention, healthcare operations, and finance.

What you’ll learn:

• Fundamentals of healthcare linen handling across various service delivery settings
• The impact of linen handling on infection prevention
• Strategies for developing a successful linen-handling program in healthcare

The CE courses provide certificates to users who pass with a grade of 80 percent or better. The laundry course awards 3 contact hours of nursing continuing education, one for each lesson.

Learn more and sign up for the course here.