TACKLING THE ITCH... WHAT IS YOUR LAUNDRY PRACTICE WITH BED BUGS?

Just about the time we think these pesky creatures have left the building the calls return again to the ALM office.  We discovered most information on the management of bed bugs focuses on training housekeeping & environmental services professionals on early detection, measures to eliminate the outbreak and recommendations for patients and guest once they return home.  For laundry personnel eradicating the unwelcomed visitors is relatively simple as a typical spin in through the industrial wash cycle and the extreme temperatures of the dryers is their final journey.  However in a recent discussion concerns arose over measures taken (or not taken) to communicate the impending arrival of these pests on the linens and the measures taken to ensure that the hitchhikers didn’t take an unexpected ride to the homes of laundry personnel or decide the laundry might be an excellent new home.  A quick survey of both healthcare and hospitality members revealed 

• The problem is not going away – over 62% of respondents reported at least a dozen or more episodes of bed bugs in their laundries this year.

• Communication here is key and 37% of the laundries indicate they rely on a phone call from their customer(s) and 31% of the customers alert the laundry by using a predetermined bag to indicate pending pests. 

• 62% of laundry processors report moving the unwanted pests out of the tunnel/CBW processing line to the smaller washer extractors and just over 23% minimize handling at the laundry by using water soluble bags when bed bugs are an issue.

• A wide variety of special handling precautions were taken from 34% sort suspected bed bug laden textiles at a separate time or place; 24% clean the soil sort area immediately after processing; 31% wisely utilize shoe covers for laundry personnel to avoid taking the guest pests home with them and 44% provide more intensive cleaning of carts but only 17% provide intensive cleaning of the truck used for transport.

• A not-surprising slim minority (barely 10%) notify other customers when textiles exposed to bed bugs have been received at the laundry.