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

Nurses Relations

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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.

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.

Just as at home when changing baby meant cloth diapers and a wash cloth, hospital laundry have long figured out how to deal with linens contaminated with fecal matter. Between dilution, chemicals and thermal action if done properly that wash cloth is perfectly safe to reuse.

As am sure we all remember from Bact or Micro E Coli is one of the more "easy" bugs to destroy in general. Temps >160F held for ten minutes or more (working from memory) takes care of most strains. Add chlorine bleach in proper ratios and at the proper time and you've pretty much wiped them all out.

Of course there are exceptions where one wants extra protection but even then it really comes down to the cost of laundering and reuse versus disposables.

Many facilities are having no end of plumbing problems due to disposable wash cloths being flushed down toilets instead of going into the rubbish.

Going back to the early 1900's hospital laundries (often supervised by doctors) took great care and paid attention to ensuring the finished product was sanitized to the extent possible. Cornell University IIRC did a study at the behest of some hospital or home economics group at the time regarding bacteria counts of finished laundry. It turns out the then methods (hot water, boiling water, plenty of soap, several rinses, etc...) was more than enough to render even the most foul linen clean and sanitary. Again to take things further chlorine bleach could be employed.

What we are seeing today as with the example noted above is that facilities have by and large shut down in house laundering and farmed the work out to services. This is all very well long as no one is complacent regarding the quality of work. That is medical and or nursing (or both) infection control should be routinely involved in testing and monitoring . If New Orleans Children's had bothered testing the bed linen after the first child became ill and subsequently died they would have known their bedding was coming back contaminated with a fungus.

All commercial laundries process things at higher temperatures (usually 165F or above) using stronger alkalis and bleaches than anything you'd find at home. They pretty much have to because they comingle laundry from many different households into one machine. This is why laundry sent out including men's shirts wear faster than things done at home.

It always amazes one that so many (not picking on anyone in particular) get worked up about *germs* on laundry when if they knew what was on common items around their home they'd never sit still again in their own skin.

One of our first assignments in bacteriology class was to go out and swab and culture various surfaces around school. Am here to tell you the next few classes as we saw what grew and learned what they were had me going home and taking long hot showers with carbolic soap (Lifebouy). *LOL*

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.

Ideally hospital linen services process only that type of laundry. The gold standard is what you see in the second linked video; barrier laundries with literally walls separated "clean" from "dirty". Between using those walls, controlling air flow and staff nothing from the latter ever comes near the former.

Know a few physicians with ambulatory surgical offices who are *very* picky about the linen service used and are very involved in making sure the linens are up to standards.

Specializes in Post Anesthesia.

I've seen an amazing amount of crud make it back from our laundry service to our clean linen cart, and still I've never had the chutzpah to toss out the hospitals linen. They count linen cost by the "wash". I can't imaging it is even in managements wildest dreams that a pillow may by thrown out! That would take a committee of 10-12 MBAs I'm sure, just to decide if there is ever a circumstance where a pillow may need to be thrown out. After a multimillion dollar study we would form a councel to develop a trial policy on pillow throwing out best practice. In 10-12 years we can decisively say that a pillow may be thrown out if at least 8 of the documented 43 conditions can be proven to exist. Of course, you then have to spend 12 hours filling out the "pillow was thrown out" documentation packet. Nope- I'll just keep tossing it back in the linen bag to be washed and giving my linens the sniff test before using them for patients.

I've seen an amazing amount of crud make it back from our laundry service to our clean linen cart, and still I've never had the chutzpah to toss out the hospitals linen. They count linen cost by the "wash". I can't imaging it is even in managements wildest dreams that a pillow may by thrown out! That would take a committee of 10-12 MBAs I'm sure, just to decide if there is ever a circumstance where a pillow may need to be thrown out. After a multimillion dollar study we would form a councel to develop a trial policy on pillow throwing out best practice. In 10-12 years we can decisively say that a pillow may be thrown out if at least 8 of the documented 43 conditions can be proven to exist. Of course, you then have to spend 12 hours filling out the "pillow was thrown out" documentation packet. Nope- I'll just keep tossing it back in the linen bag to be washed and giving my linens the sniff test before using them for patients.

...Lol

Specializes in Critical care.

I have never heard one word from management in thirty some years at the hospitals I work. No linen counts, pillow counts. We haven't been bankrupted yet . If you are my patient you get fresh unused pillows. Not soiled ones that have been improperly or properly cleaned.

I have never heard one word from management in thirty some years at the hospitals I work. No linen counts, pillow counts. We haven't been bankrupted yet . If you are my patient you get fresh unused pillows. Not soiled ones that have been improperly or properly cleaned.

But you give your patient a blanket right? you can't be sure that prior to being washed it wasn't laden with poop, what abut the sheets? those aren't brand new, probably were laden with vomit and bile at one point. the side rails? don't even get me started, how do you think housekeeping cleans those....WIPES! SAME WIPES USED ON THE PILLOWS! so why stop at pillows, why not get a brand new bed? what about the call light, rip that thing out cause a wipe won't suffice, you know there's been poop on that thing.

HERE'S THE BIGGEST QUESTION THOUGH- the "new" pillow you got, what makes you think it's new? Cause you got it from the pillow pile.......someone probably wiped it down and threw it in there.

Just curious muser69, do you also throw out blankets and sheets that are soiled?

Specializes in retired LTC.

Thinking along these same lines --- how do any of you think that hotels, and esp motels, do their linens??? I'm talking towels in the rooms and the bed linens. Especially I'm thinking of those big ole' bedspreads on the beds in the rooms.

I truly doubt that they get changed between visitors, esp with the turnover in the 'more economical' places. You'll never know if the room was one of those 'rent-by-the hour" rooms. Then you need to think about the pillows and the mattresses. Pillowcases and sheets get stripped but the other items???

Just something to think about ...

Specializes in Critical Care.
I have never heard one word from management in thirty some years at the hospitals I work. No linen counts, pillow counts. We haven't been bankrupted yet . If you are my patient you get fresh unused pillows. Not soiled ones that have been improperly or properly cleaned.

You mean you use brand new, just out of the box pillows? How do you tell the brand new, never used ones from the other ones?

Thinking along these same lines --- how do any of you think that hotels, and esp motels, do their linens??? I'm talking towels in the rooms and the bed linens. Especially I'm thinking of those big ole' bedspreads on the beds in the rooms.

I truly doubt that they get changed between visitors, esp with the turnover in the 'more economical' places. You'll never know if the room was one of those 'rent-by-the hour" rooms. Then you need to think about the pillows and the mattresses. Pillowcases and sheets get stripped but the other items???

Just something to think about ...

Ok, now we are in a whole other realm! *LOL*

According to many recent news reports hotel and motel rooms are often just plain nasty!

What's Hiding in Your Hotel Room? - ABC News

Totally agree with it the linens. But change out the field bags and sticks. I agree with that. I have seen people get infections.

Specializes in Critical care.
You mean you use brand new, just out of the box pillows? How do you tell the brand new, never used ones from the other ones?

Maybe it is the plastic wrapping around each pillow?

:yes:

Specializes in Critical care.
But you give your patient a blanket right? you can't be sure that prior to being washed it wasn't laden with poop, what abut the sheets? those aren't brand new, probably were laden with vomit and bile at one point. the side rails? don't even get me started, how do you think housekeeping cleans those....WIPES! SAME WIPES USED ON THE PILLOWS! so why stop at pillows, why not get a brand new bed? what about the call light, rip that thing out cause a wipe won't suffice, you know there's been poop on that thing.

HERE'S THE BIGGEST QUESTION THOUGH- the "new" pillow you got, what makes you think it's new? Cause you got it from the pillow pile.......someone probably wiped it down and threw it in there.

Just curious muser69, do you also throw out blankets and sheets that are soiled?

Yes if the sheets and blankets are badly soiled we toss them too., not often but it happens. We give each pt a disposable BP cuff. Hmm,new BP cuff or clean pillow next to my face.... Let me think about it. Each of our pillows come 2 or 3 to a package and we always have a clean supply room filled. I don't know why this is such a mortal sin if management is ok with it.

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