Laundry services in hospitals are responsible for providing clean medical linens in a timely manner. This includes items like bed sheets, towels, blankets, and doctors' coats. Cotton is commonly used. The laundry department sorts, washes, dries and repairs linens from different areas of the hospital. Clean linens are important for patient comfort, sanitation, and preventing disease transmission. Hospitals can operate laundry services through contractual, rental, in-plant, or cooperative systems depending on their size and needs. Proper planning considers the hospital size, location, weather and available services.

1. LAUNDRY SERVICES
UNIT - 4

2. INTRODUCTION
● Laundry services are responsible for providing safe,
clean, adequate and timely supply of linen to user units
of a hospital at right time, right price, right quantity and
right place.
● Linen is a general term used to denote clothing items. It
includes all the textile used in hospitals including
Mattress, bed cover, pillow cover, bed sheets, towel,
blanket, screen, curtain, doctor’s coat ,table cover etc.
● Cotton is most preferred and frequently used material as
it is cheaper and more comfortable.

3. Laundry department in a hospital

4. ● Hospital laundry receives all the linen material from
different areas like ward, OT, OPD, and office area
where they undergo process of sorting, washing ,
extracting, drying, ironing, folding, mending and delivery.
● The OT linen materials need special care since it has to
be washed & sterilized carefully. So if possible, the
hospital can go for separate laundry process for OT linen
materials alone

5. Importance of clean medical linens
● Clean medical linens are important because :
○ They allow patients to feel more comfortable and at ease.
○ Vital simply from a sanitation perspective
○ They prevent the transmission of germs from patient to patient.
○ Clean linens make the patient to psychologically healthy
○ It has aesthetic value

6. Linens used in a hospital

7. Quality of linen
● Proper moisture repellency
● Dry efficiency (Quick drying)
● Surface fluffy (Soft)
● Tensile strength (Tensile strength is the ability of a
material to withstand a pulling force).
● Low flammable
● Easily sanitize
● Good visual appearance
● Microbial repellent
● Non-Irritant

8. Importance of laundry services

9. FUNCTIONS OF LAUNDRY SERVICE
● Collecting soiled linen from various places.
● Sorting the linen and processing (Cleaning)
them
● Inspecting and repairing or replacing damaged
materials.
● Distributing clean linen to the respective user
departments.
● Maintaining different types of registers.

10. Activities in laundry
● Collecting and receiving dirty and soiled linen from
wards and other dept.
● Sorting of linen
● Removing of blood stains
● Disinfection ( using formaldehyde , hydrogen peroxide)
● Washing and Drying
● Repairing/ sewing
● Pressing/ calendering and folding
● Storage
● Issue of material

11. Flowchart of laundry services

12. Types of laundry services
Contractual
System
Rental
System
In Plant
System
Co-
operative
System

13. ● Contractual system : In this system, Hospital owns the
linen but has no mean of laundering it. It hires a
contractor whose job is to collect linen and after
laundering delivers to hospital. Some time the hospital
also provide space and facility for laundering.
Disadvantage for this system is that it may leads to
mixing of linen and chance of cross infection are more.

14. ● Rental system: Especially for the hospital with small
size where it will not be economical to have their own
laundry. In this system, the hospital hires laundered linen
from contractor on rental basis. This system is advisable
for small hospital upto 50 beds.
● In plant system: In this system , the hospital have its
own laundry plant . It is one of the best method for
washing hospital linen. This type of laundry is more
suitable for hospital of bigger size. Advantage are Loss
and damage of linen reduced, reduction in cross
infection

15. ● Cooperative system: In this system, a single laundry
caters to number of hospitals. This system is most
economic. It is suitable for hospital of small size and
nursing homes . Disadvantage are chance of higher
cross infection, also if there is strike in one laundry , it
affects functioning of many hospitals.

16. planning
● The following should be considered while planning for a
Hospital Linen and Laundry services
○ 1) Size of the Hospital
○ 2) Type of Hospital
○ 3) Availability of Linen and Laundry services in adjacent areas
○ 4) Weather Conditions
○ 5) Type of Clientele

17. List of files and registers
1. Linen stock register
2. Daily transaction register for wards
3. Daily transaction register for other
areas
4. Dhobi pay register
5. Camp register

18. Equipments
● Boilers
● Washing Machine
● Hydro extraction machine
● Drying Tumblers
● Calendaring machine
● Steam bed press
● Electric hand press
● Sewing machine
● Weighing scale
● Fire extinguisher
● Trolleys

19. Washing machines

20. Hydro extracting machine

21. Location
● Ideally, it should be on the ground floor of an isolated building
connected or adjacent to the water and power plant.
● Hospital laundry should be located away from the main
service area of hospital.
● Close to boiler and water heating system.
● Large hospitals with 500 beds and above should establish
their own mechanized laundry.
● The laundry should be located in an area that has ample
daylight and natural ventilation.

22. Thank you