HLAC

Technologies used for water reclamation and disinfection are being developed and becoming more commonplace. The ability to not only evaluate alternative technologies but to monitor them over time is going to become critical as cost and environmental issues push water reuse and conservation efforts. The PMTK tool for testing microbial contamination of water systems is a great tool to measure the effectiveness of some of the new processes being used to clean water, including chemical, UV, O3, and various filtration technologies. Textile Hygiene Bioburden testing by material fiber content (cotton and polyester have different characteristics) is reinforcing the understanding that industrial washing programs are very effective when following CDC recommended practice of either 160oF wash or the use of chlorine bleach. However, keeping HCTs free of contamination during the journey from the wash process to the sick patient’s bedside can be challenging. The PMTK enables laundries to perform hygiene testing on HCTs at multiple points in the process. At a minimum, this can tell the laundry if cleaned HCTs stay clean until their point of use. If they don’t, it can help to identify sources of the contamination. Of historical importance is that textile bioburden tests focus on enumerating total aerobic organisms (or, CFUs). Post wash, preliminary, but unconfirmed, data show higher aerobic counts and, in some cases, much higher. This is not unexpected as aerobic organisms are commonly found in the environment and sometimes in very high quantities – mold in fall, pollen in spring, etc. Due to these factors, establishing action limits for aerobic CFUs is extremely difficult. However, the key to the PMTK HCT hygiene procedure is to not only determine total aerobic counts, but also conduct a heat shock procedure to enumerate heat resistant spores. This class of spores, “thermophiles,” represents some of HEALTHCARE LAUNDRY ACCREDI TAT ION COUNC I L (HLAC)