Page 21 - HA Convention 2016 [Abstracts (Day 2)]

Special Topics HOSPITAL AUTHORITY CONVENTION 2016

T11.3 Patient Catering and Laundry Services Management in 10:45 Room 221
Hospital Authority

Service Monitoring System of Laundry Services in Butterfly Beach Laundry, Hospital Authority
Chan SCK
Cluster Administrative Services Division, Tuen Mun Hospital, Hong Kong

Background

The Butterfly Beach Laundry (BBL) provides laundry services to 10 hospitals of different clusters under the Hospital Authority
(HA). It is the largest hospital laundry within the HA. The service monitoring system of laundry services in BBL includes four
elements, namely, governance, quality assurance system, infection control measures and communication.

Governance

The operation of BBL is under the management of Administrative Services Division of New Territories West Cluster (NTWC).
For maintaining an effective surveillance of laundry services, a clear governance structure has been set up to monitor the
services and performance of BBL at different levels including the BBL Management Committee at plant level, the Cluster
Management Committee of NTWC at cluster level and the Management and Monitoring Committee at corporate level.

Quality Assurance System

In order to ensure the quality of laundry services, a three-tier system is adopted throughout the laundry processing from
end to end. The first-tier includes standardisation of workflows and processes in handling linen in healthcare facilities and
the laundry plant of BBL. The second-tier is about monitoring of the core laundering process including the proper operation
of laundry equipment and strict control on washing formula. The third-tier is to carry out audits and quality inspections in
various aspects. Also, supervision and reporting mechanism are established to address the quality control issues and alert
management in case of incident.

Infection Control Measures

To maintain clean condition of the laundry plant and hygiene of linen, BBL implements a series of infection control measures.
The targets of those infection control measures should widely cover the environmental condition, the laundering processes as
well as the potential infection hazards during transportation and storage. Also the human may be the most important factor to
affect the success of infection control.

Communication

To collect user feedback for continuous improvement, meetings with users are held regularly. In addition, customer
satisfaction survey is conducted annually to measure the level of satisfactory on the services of BBL.

T11.4 Patient Catering and Laundry Services Management in 10:45 Room 221 Wednesday, 4 May
Hospital Authority

Process Improvement for Hospital Laundry Services
So B
Automation Service Division, Hong Kong Productivity Council, Hong Kong

Healthcare linen are fabric products that touch patients and employees directly or indirectly on a daily basis. Laundry
of healthcare linen is a recognised support service which not only ensures the prevention and containment of hospital
infections, but also contributes to hospital image. Typical laundry processes for healthcare linen include linen unloading,
sorting, washing, drying, ironing, packaging, quality control, storage and transportation. In order to improve patient safety
and quality on healthcare linen laundry services in HA, the Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC) was commissioned to
conduct a consultancy project on reviewing the laundry services (excluding anti-biological laundry process) in HA laundries
and to provide recommendations on areas of improvements. On-site visits to HA in-house laundries, HA contract-in laundries,
laundries operated by Correctional Services Department and commercial contractor were carried out. Gap analysis was
conducted to identify areas of improvement on current practice in HA laundries against the local/international practices and
standards, with recommendations for improvement being made based on the applicability to the actual operation of laundry
services under HA.

This presentation will highlight some of the key findings during the consultancy study, and will share the insights and
directions of recommendations for better process control and improvement for hospital laundry services under HA.

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