News
Bringing specialist air-mattress decontamination in-house.10/08/2004In the name of contamination control and cleanliness, it is vital that, after a patient leaves a ward bed, all bedding can be thoroughly decontaminated for the next arrival. But, the job becomes tricky when it comes to specialist items like air-mattresses, widely used to help prevent pressure ulcers, especially in long-term care patients.
Air-mattresses require special laundry processes, and for many hospital trusts the essential job of thermally and chemically disinfecting these specialist items has to be contracted out to an external service. This is not only expensive, but is also in-efficient for hospitals. The first choice for all hospitals would be to bring this process in-house. After the initial investment for the new specialist laundry equipment, there are great benefits in terms of cost saving, quality control and efficiency.
Until now, Arrowe Park Hospital in The Wirral have had all their 140 air-mattresses processed by a specialist external contractor, whenever a patient was discharged, to be ready for use when the next patient was admitted. Now, through the establishment of an on site Equipment Decontamination Unit, Arrowe Park has been given the opportunity to invest in specialist commercial laundry equipment, enabling them to bring the whole process in-house. This has allowed Arrowe Park to run a more cost-effective and efficient process for decontamination with much greater control over quality.
Arrowe Park Hospital employed the expertise of ACER Equipment, based in Solihull, to help source the specialist laundry equipment that would be able to handle this material with care, and deliver the highest standards of both thermal and chemical disinfections. After a thorough brief on the Arrowe Park’s requirements, ACER installed two Miele Professional WS5101 washer-extractors with one Miele Professional T6251 tumble dryer. These machines were chosen for this job as they offer Miele Professional’s Profitronic Controls, allowing bespoke programmes to be loaded, designed to meet individual requirements. This meant ACER were able to provide Arrowe Park with a package specifically designed for their needs. Special programmes were introduced for thermal disinfection of the air-mattress material. Miele Professional laundry equipment has been successfully used for many years in healthcare applications, offering machines that have been specially designed to meet the specialist requirements needed in this area. Miele’s Profitronic Controls allows complete flexibility, and can help hospitals find the answer to a whole host of problems.
Before installing the equipment, ACER worked closely with Arrowe Park to design a layout to make the best use of the space and ensure maximum efficiency. Bill Haughton, Tissue Viability Specialist Nurse at Arrowe Park Hospital manages the Equipment Decontamination Unit where this equipment has been installed and worked with ACER throughout the development stages to ensure all their needs were met. Bill comments; ‘With 1,300 beds across the whole Trust, bringing the process of thermally and chemically disinfecting these special mattresses in-house is fantastic news for Arrowe Park Hospital. Not only are we saving vital money that can now be re-directed to other critical areas in the hospital. But, as a department we are now running to maximum efficiency, with the benefit of maintaining our own quality control on this process. It was great to have a specialist company like ACER on board, to advise us on the best equipment for our purpose, and to benefit from their expertise in laundry design.’
For details on ACER Equipments full products and services call 0870 179 8181 or visit www.acerequipment.com.
