192 Business View - August 2015
Westport Linen Services
Leaving the dirty work to them
A hospital is the place where people go when they
need to get well; but sometimes that very same hospi-
tal is the place where people actually go and get sick.
Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) are infections
that patients acquire while receiving treatment for
other medical or surgical conditions. They occur, not
just in hospitals, but in all types of healthcare settings:
same-day surgical centers, ambulatory outpatient
centers, doctors’ clinics, long-term care facilities, and
nursing homes, among other places.
The United States Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention estimates that, each year, some 1.7 mil-
lion hospital patients are stricken with an HAI – and
one hundred thousand of them die. Some common
HAIs are pneumonias, and bloodstream, surgical site,
and urinary tract infections. Some of these bugs can
survive in healthcare environments for a long time on
surfaces, bedrails, and even hospital staff. Hospital
linens, in particular, are a chief vector for the spread of
HAIs, as used bed sheets, for example, contain large
concentrations of microbial contamination. That is why
the cleaning and sanitizing of all hospital laundry is a
key element in helping to prevent thousands of the un-
HEALTHCARE
