Throwing out pillows!? Does anyone else do this!?

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I'm admittedly a bit of a tree hugger so it bothers me to see waste in general. It makes me cringe at work to see waste. I worked a lot with this one nurse who if a sheet/blanket/towel was moderately/heavily soiled and I don't mean with HIV laden blood I just mean poop or urine she would throw it out! I recently saw her throw out a pillow with a little poop on it! She said would say things like "there's no way the laundry service can get that clean" but I'm pretty sure they do. I say that because people throw poop laden towels in the linen bins all the time and I've never seen an unused towel with poop on it.

I'm sure the laundry service that specifically cleans hospital linens has already thought of this 'how will we sanitize things covered in poop or urine' Also I'm sure they have to meet rigorous standards set by whatever organizations governs that kind of thing.

And there's so many other instances of unnecessary waste, when I worked in the ER if a pt came in with a full bag of lets say NS hung by EMS and the MD ordered a 1 liter NS bolus I would just let the EMS bag run. Why toss it like so many nurses do? I know you have to restart field lines within 24 hours because they're "dirty" but a bag of fluids?! C'mon they're packaged just the same as the hospital bag.

Or when you walk in to an incontinent pt's room and there's like 6 unopened bags of peri wipes, 2 tubes of barrier cream, 8 towels and 4 chux pads. Not only does it drain the main supply room but when the pt leaves all that extra stuff gets thrown out, I like to be prepared to but within reason, only take what you need and maybe one extra for the next shift. Especially if the patient's only gonna be there a day or two, all this waste adds up. It all just factors in to the rising cost of healthcare/taxes/drains on our paychecks (in the big picture/long run) etc.

Specializes in Critical care.

I have seen our housekeeping dept clean rooms and pillows. Trust me you would not want one of these pillows next to your face. I throw out every pillow when a pt is transferred/ discharged. I don't worry about the budget ,I worry about how I would want to be treated as a patient.

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Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.

We only toss pillows that no longer have an intact impervious cover or those used to position extremely messy trauma patients during surgery that are seriously soaked. Even with the cover, we've seen a few where blood has seeped in between the seams. Unfortunately, we've also had to do this with some of our (rather expensive) bean bags used for lateral positioning after the suction used to keep the bag taut to hold the patient also sucked blood into the bag itself. Still better than reusing it on another patient. And if I'm ever in the hospital, you can be guaranteed that I'm bringing my own pillow!

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Specializes in Oncology.

Our pillows are plastic covered and don't go to laundry. We wipe them with a bleach or ammonia wipe when they're visibly soiled or between patients. Most of the time it does the trick. Sometimes they rip or have a stain beyond what I could possibly get off with a wipe. Then I toss them. I've done this to maybe 2 pillows in the last six years, so not like it's a regular occurrence.

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I have seen our housekeeping dept clean rooms and pillows. Trust me you would not want one of these pillows next to your face. I throw out every pillow when a pt is transferred/ discharged. I don't worry about the budget ,I worry about how I would want to be treated as a patient.

But the pillow gets a cover? Your face is on the cover not the vinyl. If you're gonna go that far well think of all the times another nurse helps you change someone and then with urine on their gloves they touch the side rails and the bed buttons and the pt sheets. We do it without thinking but start watching people. Barrier creams are the worst people touch those with poop covered gloves and then it goes back on the counter/table. And then us and the patients touch all that stuff what about that? disgusting germs are everywhere it's a hospital. Also if you want to see pt's continue to have high levels of care the hospitals can't be bankrupt then we wont' have pillow for pt's because they're all getting thrown out and the hospital won't keep restocking them. Then it's going to be really hard to provide the care you want to provide when each pt on the floor can only have one pillow.

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Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.
But the pillow gets a cover? Your face is on the cover not the vinyl.

We use standard pillow cases over the vinyl impervious pillow. They are not impervious, and I've seen pillows stained with god knows what along the seams. Still bringing my own pillow if I'm ever admitted.

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Modern hospital or healthcare linen laundries are more than capable of dealing with moderate to severe soiled and or bio contaminated items. In fact the laundering process for hospital linens going back decades has been tested and shown when properly done not only produces clean product but at levels of sanitation perfectly suited.

There were in the old days and still are for all one knows machines in hospital laundries or such places that clean and sanitize pillows and even mattresses. These were mainly in the days before plastic/vinyl or other impervious material covered bedding. With today's modern coverings long as they remain intact precious little including fluids is getting past.

Am that gobsmacked that a nurse takes it upon herself to routinely dispose of hospital property without clear guidelines and or authorization other than her own say so. Heavily goo, poo and spew bed and bath linens were sent to the wash without nursing staff concerning themselves with making "extra work" for the laundry. Today of course such linens must and should be labeled as bio-hazard so the laundry knows what it is getting in advance, but still.

All commercial laundries and or those responsible for maintaining linen supplies have procedures and guidelines for dealing with linens that remain stained even after laundering. Such items are normally saved until there is enough to make a full load and put through a "reclaim" laundering cycle. This involves normally using much stronger bleaches and alkalis along with higher temperatures to remove the offending stains. If this does not work and or the items remain deemed unfit for service they are removed by demoting to "rag" status. Then they may be sold off for such purposes or otherwise disposed. What is important is that the institution or linen service (whomever owns the stuff) can take a write down against the loss for whatever value remains. That and or capture same by selling off the "rags". By chucking the item into the rubbish the nurse in question not only deprives the facility or linen service of said potential value but throws the linen counts out.

In every facility person or persons know how much linen is purchased and what is discarded by count. When things do not match it becomes a problem. With scrubs it was then and still is often theft suspected hence the machines that dispense the things based upon return of soiled.

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I think it's disgusting that some hospitals use the same washcloths to clean someone's excrement, then put that washcloth with all the other laundry where it gets mixed with other non-excrement laden linens, and then comes back and can be used for baths and face washcloths. Think about it, the solid excrement is going into a washing machine with other linens where it is mixed around. I don't understand why they cannot have disposable wipes to use to clean feces which get thrown away. Or at the very least, have different colored cloths that get washed separately for peri-care. Would you want to use a face cloth that was previously covered in feces?

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Specializes in Cardiac Stepdown, PCU.
I think it's disgusting that some hospitals use the same washcloths to clean someone's excrement, then put that washcloth with all the other laundry where it gets mixed with other non-excrement laden linens, and then comes back and can be used for baths and face washcloths. Think about it, the solid excrement is going into a washing machine with other linens where it is mixed around. I don't understand why they cannot have disposable wipes to use to clean feces which get thrown away. Or at the very least, have different colored cloths that get washed separately for peri-care. Would you want to use a face cloth that was previously covered in feces?

By that logic you'd also need to use separate washing and drying machines, laundry bags, storage rooms... you don't find that the least bit ridiculous? Clean is clean. Maybe being a mother and having children who have pee'd, or vomited, or even pooped on nearly everything in the house gives me a different perspective. I used cloth diapers and wash clothes for reusable wipes through all three of mine. Never once considered throwing anything out.

In an incident like this... I'd likely report the person throwing things away that didn't need to be thrown away just because they had an unrealistic view of it not being clean.

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Technically per OSHA standards since the 1980's (borne out of the HIV/Aids epidemic) laundry contaminated by bodily fluids/substances is supposed to go in a separate bag labeled as such. This alerts laundry staff both for their own protection and as well as to determine which laundry cycle to use.

Being as all this may hospitals, nursing homes, and or places that process such linen that is routinely contaminated by feces and other waste/bodily substances special washing machines called "sluice" or cycles of same.

While they resemble normal washing machines these "sluice" versions have larger holes in the drum and run special cycles at the start of the wash to flush solids and other matter down drains before the laundering process proper begins. It is the commercial version of dunking infant's diapers in the toilet (or whatever) before sending them to the washing machine.

Because these machines do not have pumps but flush strait to drains there is little rise of the foul matter coming back to the wash.

Even without special sluice machines hospital/healthcare/diaper laundries go through many, many, many changes of water (far more than home washing machines) and thus solid waste is removed by dilution. This action plus heat, chemicals, pH levels and so forth means the wash cloth that comes back is perfectly safe to use as a face or whatever cloth.

And yes, in many hospitals either infection control nurse or some such person if not in house with the laundry routinely checks samples of finished product for bacteria levels including E coli counts.

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.
Technically per OSHA standards since the 1980's (borne out of the HIV/Aids epidemic) laundry contaminated by bodily fluids/substances is supposed to go in a separate bag labeled as such. This alerts laundry staff both for their own protection and as well as to determine which laundry cycle to use.

Being as all this may hospitals, nursing homes, and or places that process such linen that is routinely contaminated by feces and other waste/bodily substances special washing machines called "sluice" or cycles of same.

While they resemble normal washing machines these "sluice" versions have larger holes in the drum and run special cycles at the start of the wash to flush solids and other matter down drains before the laundering process proper begins. It is the commercial version of dunking infant's diapers in the toilet (or whatever) before sending them to the washing machine.

Because these machines do not have pumps but flush strait to drains there is little rise of the foul matter coming back to the wash.

Even without special sluice machines hospital/healthcare/diaper laundries go through many, many, many changes of water (far more than home washing machines) and thus solid waste is removed by dilution. This action plus heat, chemicals, pH levels and so forth means the wash cloth that comes back is perfectly safe to use as a face or whatever cloth.

And yes, in many hospitals either infection control nurse or some such person if not in house with the laundry routinely checks samples of finished product for bacteria levels including E coli counts.

Seems like most people have this ideas that industrial laundry is like the home laundry that we partake in, which is not the case. :no:

Again, another good post from DoGoodThenGo. :yes:

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Seems like most people have this ideas that industrial laundry is like the home laundry that we partake in, which is not the case. :no:

Again, another good post from DoGoodThenGo. :yes:

Why thanks all to pieces!

Being as all the above may no system is perfect and things do happen:

Fungal outbreak raises questions about hospital laundry oversight | NOLA.com

How your hospital's laundry is done:

Smaller scale:

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Technically per OSHA standards since the 1980's (borne out of the HIV/Aids epidemic) laundry contaminated by bodily fluids/substances is supposed to go in a separate bag labeled as such. This alerts laundry staff both for their own protection and as well as to determine which laundry cycle to use.

Being as all this may hospitals, nursing homes, and or places that process such linen that is routinely contaminated by feces and other waste/bodily substances special washing machines called "sluice" or cycles of same.

While they resemble normal washing machines these "sluice" versions have larger holes in the drum and run special cycles at the start of the wash to flush solids and other matter down drains before the laundering process proper begins. It is the commercial version of dunking infant's diapers in the toilet (or whatever) before sending them to the washing machine.

Because these machines do not have pumps but flush strait to drains there is little rise of the foul matter coming back to the wash.

Even without special sluice machines hospital/healthcare/diaper laundries go through many, many, many changes of water (far more than home washing machines) and thus solid waste is removed by dilution. This action plus heat, chemicals, pH levels and so forth means the wash cloth that comes back is perfectly safe to use as a face or whatever cloth.

And yes, in many hospitals either infection control nurse or some such person if not in house with the laundry routinely checks samples of finished product for bacteria levels including E coli counts.

That was very informative. I knew hospital laundry is done differently, but no one could ever tell me how it was different and I never cared enough to look it up! I still think it's wrong to use reusable washcloths for peri-care and most of the "higher end" hospitals in my area have used disposable wipes for years now.

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