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Hi Sandra
How was the soiled linen transported? Was it is a covered container? Were the staff transporting the linen wearing appropriate PPE? Did they transport the soiled linen from the outbreak area directly to the soiled linen storage area, or did they stop and pick up further soiled linen wearing the same PPE they had on in the outbreak area?
Soiled linen that is adequately contained is unlikely to spread infection. The most likely source of infection spread would be the staff transporting the linen. It may not always be possible to avoid transporting soiled waste through other areas, but it is important to ensure staff coming out of an outbreak area either change their PPE on exiting the outbreak area, and perform hand hygiene before donning fresh PPE to then further transport the soiled waste, or, if they do not come into contact with any other surfaces (eg elevator buttons, door handles, swipe cards) until they have disposed of the soiled linen in the storage area, they keep the same PPE on to transport the soiled waste out of the outbreak area then remove PPE and perform hand hygiene.
Hope that makes sense.
Cheers
Michael
Michael Wishart | Infection Control Coordinator, CICP-E
St Vincents Private Hospital Northside | 627 Rode Road CHERMSIDE QLD 4032
M +61 448 954 282 | T +61 7 3326 3068 | F +61 7 3607 2226
E michael.wishart@svha.org.au |
St Vincents Private Hospital Brisbane | 411 Main Street KANGAROO POINT QLD 4169
M +61 448 954 282 | T +61 7 3240 1208 | F +61 7 3240 1166
E michael.wishart@svha.org.au |
________________________________
We recently experienced an outbreak of Parainfluenza 1,2,3 and Human Pneuovirus. It spread to 10 of our residents. It wasn’t till near the end of our lockdown that I learned that the dirty/soiled linen was being transported from the initially infected wing to the laundry straight through another wing instead of being detoured to the outside of the building from the contaminated wing. I feel this resulted in a further 2 residents became infected due to this process. I am correct in thinking that this should not happen. If there is a means of getting dirty linen to the laundry without transporting it through another wing shouldn’t that be how it should be transported during an outbreak? I have been unable to find any definitive information in this regard so any expert help would be much appreciated.
Sandra Chick
EEN/IPC Lead
Ridgehaven Retirement Complex
32 Stuart Street
Monto Qld 4630
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