Medical fabric sensory control risk involves daily use, collection, transfer, decontamination, storage and other links, which link should not be ignored.
(I) Daily use of fabrics in general wards: ‘Hospital Infection Management Code for Wards’ clearly requires that bed linen, quilt covers, pillowcases and other bedding in direct contact with patients should be replaced by one person for one person; when the patient's hospitalisation time exceeds one week, the bedding should be replaced weekly; and when contaminated, it should be replaced in a timely manner. The replaced supplies should be cleaned and disinfected in a timely manner. Bedding that indirectly contacts patients, such as pillowcases, quilt cores, mattresses, bed curtains, mattresses, etc., should be cleaned and disinfected on a regular basis, and when contaminated, they should be replaced, cleaned and disinfected in a timely manner.
Neonatal ward: The bedclothes and clothes used by newborn babies should be kept clean and dry, changed once a day, and replaced in time when contaminated.
Haemodialysis Centre: At the end of dialysis, bed sheets, duvet covers, pillowcases and other items used by patients should be changed for one person for one use.
(II) Fabric collection
The collection of quilted clothes seems to be very simple, in fact, there are many sense control risk points.
a. Dirty fabric collection
In daily work, unarmed holding the replacement of dirty fabrics from the sick room to the dirt disposal room phenomenon is common, especially in primary care institutions seem to take it for granted, because this work seems to be more efficient, the use of bedding trolley collection is too troublesome. It is important not to lose sight of the sensory control risks involved in this process for the sake of efficiency. Because there is no trolley, while making spare beds, the soiled fabrics can only be temporarily piled up on the floor of the ward, at which time there is a two-way secondary contamination between the floor of the ward and the replaced bedclothes. In addition, the process of transferring the soiled fabrics with bare hands will also contaminate the work clothes, and there is a risk of occupational exposure. Wearing the contaminated work clothes and then carrying out relevant aseptic operations for the patients will inevitably increase the risk of cross-infection. Replacement of soiled fabrics should not be counted in the public space of the ward, but should be collected in a quilt trolley and a collection bag and transferred in a sealed area.
b. Infected fabrics Infected fabrics should be collected separately, using orange infected fabric bags or water-soluble bags for bedside collection in airtight containment, with counting prohibited, and separately transferred in airtight containment to the isolation laundry for cleaning and disinfection.
(III) Laundries in the recovery and distribution chain should be equipped with transfer tools for clean, soiled and infected fabrics, clearly labelled and placed in a fixed position, and should not be used in a cross-cutting manner. Transfer tools should be regularly cleaned and disinfected, and the transfer tools for transporting infected fabrics should be strictly enforced with one use and one disinfection. Transfer vehicles equipped with rapid hand disinfectant, transfer personnel should strictly implement hand hygiene, such as contact with dirty fabrics after removing gloves, before contact with clean fabrics should be implemented hand hygiene.
(IV) Fabric washing and disinfection should not use the same washing machine to wash all medical fabrics. Laundry staff should choose to wash and disinfect medical fabrics in separate machines or batches according to the object of use, the nature and degree of stains. ‘Hospital Medical Fabric Washing and Disinfection Technical Specification’ clearly requires: ① newborns, infants, medical fabrics should be special machine washing and disinfection, should not be mixed with other medical fabrics; ② operating theatre medical fabrics should be washed and disinfected separately; ③ infected fabrics should be divided into zones, washing and disinfection of a special machine, it is not suitable for manual washing, and each time after the release of the hatch should be disinfected immediately after the wipes and the surrounding area. (V) The person in charge of the laundry and its relevant authorities and supervisory departments should strictly perform their duties, and implement the whole process of supervision and guidance on its washing and disinfection process.
(v) Fabric storage should be kept in a clean and dry environment, whether it is the ward quilt storage room or the clean fabric storage area in the laundry. Clean fabric storage racks should be 20cm to 25cm from the ground, 5cm to 10cm from the wall, and ≥50cm from the ceiling, and should be re-washed and disinfected in a timely manner if stains, odours, etc. are found.
(VI) washing quality monitoring clean fabrics washing quality sensory indicators should be checked per batch, when suspected of hospital infection outbreaks related to medical fabrics, environmental hygiene monitoring should be carried out, including the total number of bacterial colonies (≤ 200cfu/100cm2) and the relevant indicators of bacterial detection.
