Special Connection | Xinyuan Medical Textile: Ensuring Effective Hospital Infection Control to Win the Epidemic Prevention Battle

With the increasingly severe situation of the novel coronavirus pneumonia, as an important part of hospital logistics management, the socialized medical laundry service company has unconditionally joined this smoke-free epidemic prevention battle, with a high sense of social responsibility and mission, ensuring high-quality laundry services for medical textiles, committed to the prevention and safety of hospital infection control.

On January 25, all Medical institutions served by Xinyuan Medical Textile (Sanhe) Laundry Service Co., Ltd. , all received a letter titled "Explanation on the Prohibition of Using Medical Waste Packaging Bags (Hospital Yellow Garbage Bags) to Contain Infectious Medical Textiles During the Prevention and Control of Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia". The letter concludes: To ensure the safety of staff and avoid unnecessary risks, the use of yellow medical waste garbage bags and black plastic bags to contain infectious textiles is prohibited. If used, our company will firmly refuse to accept them. We hope the hospital understands, supports, and cooperates!

Xinyuan Medical Textile is one of the well-known medical laundry enterprises in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, equipped with industry-leading professional laundry equipment, intelligent management systems, and zero-discharge energy-saving and environmentally friendly sewage treatment systems. The company has a mature training mechanism and rigorous management. What is the reason for issuing this "Explanation"? Xinyuan Medical Textile in this epidemic prevention battle has encountered what challenges? With these questions, the editorial department connected with Ms. Kang Lihong, General Manager of Xinyuan Medical Textile (Sanhe) Laundry Service Co., Ltd.

According to General Manager Kang Lihong of Xinyuan Medical Textile, although the company's daily production operations are quite standardized and capable of handling various issues in medical laundry, due to the sudden development of the epidemic, about half of the employees began rotating leave from mid-January to return home for the holiday. Due to epidemic prevention and control factors, employees on leave could not return to the factory in time. The rapidly increasing laundry frequency made labor shortage the primary challenge for factory production during the holiday period.

Additionally, affected by the "relocation of non-capital functions," Xinyuan Medical Textile, as one of the earlier professional medical laundry enterprises relocated from Beijing, serves relatively fewer units due to the scattered and structurally different hospitals in its location. Its actual service targets remain major hospitals and medical institutions in Beijing. Due to frequent trips of drivers and vehicles between Beijing hospitals and the dense presence of production staff, local authorities might temporarily shut down the enterprise due to strict epidemic prevention measures. Currently, Xinyuan is the only enterprise in its park serving as a hospital logistics support unit operating normally. It is noteworthy that many socialized medical laundry enterprises in Beijing have already relocated due to relevant industrial policies.

More severe is: The hospital infection control issues exposed during the handover of infectious textiles between the factory and hospitals have become the biggest current challenge. (Hospitals use a large number of yellow and black ordinary plastic bags to contain infectious textiles, making these plastic bags the medical waste with the highest infection risk.)

Xinyuan Medical Textile immediately conducted safety education and training for all employees in the hospital laundry rooms and production workshops on duty, enabling everyone to fully understand the harm of novel coronavirus pneumonia and how to effectively protect themselves.

Held multiple company management-level meetings, raising high attention from top to bottom in the company. Especially increased psychological intervention and guidance on self-protection for frontline employees involved in the handover between factory and hospitals, transforming tension and panic into responsibility and motivation, engaging in actual work with a more rigorous attitude and methods.

Regarding the possible shutdown risk due to epidemic prevention control, Xinyuan Medical Textile immediately communicated with the local Development Zone Management Committee, Health Bureau, and other regulatory departments in Sanhe and formulated strict prevention measures. Feedback was also given to the Beijing Medical Laundry Group and Medical Administration Bureau. Under active communication, efforts were made to change from passive to active, striving to ensure the safety of transportation processes and laundry quality, cooperating with local government departments to actively respond to all epidemic prevention work.

Especially issued to the hospitals and medical institutions served, "Explanation on the Prohibition of Using Medical Waste Packaging Bags (Hospital Yellow Garbage Bags) to Contain Infectious Medical Textiles During the Prevention and Control of Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia" hoping hospitals can, based on relevant laws, regulations, and policies, better comply with standards for containing infectious textiles by using water-soluble packaging bags for containment, sealing, and separate handover, maximizing the protection of staff's physical and mental health.

General Manager Kang Lihong of Xinyuan Medical Textile especially emphasized through this publication : Since socialized medical laundry service companies do not have the qualifications to handle medical waste, they can only call on hospitals and other medical institutions to pay attention to the standards and requirements for receiving infectious textiles, selecting water-soluble packaging bags that meet the requirements of WS/T508 "Technical Specifications for Washing and Disinfection of Hospital Medical Textiles" for containing infectious textiles, sealing, and separate handover, effectively avoiding the risk of infectious textiles becoming sources of hospital infection during handover, transportation, and laundry processes.

After the epidemic arrived, Xinyuan Medical Textile, with a high sense of social responsibility and mission, joined hands with hospitals to fight the epidemic. Taking the Capital Medical University Affiliated Anzhen Hospital as an example, medical textiles originally delivered every other day during holidays are now delivered twice daily, and in urgent cases, even washed and delivered immediately. Even if the hospital has only 20 pieces of clothing, the boiler and machines are started to wash and disinfect them, then a separate vehicle is dispatched to ensure safe washing, timely replacement, and use of medical textiles.

For hospitals that cannot use water-soluble packaging bags to contain infectious fabrics, Xinyuan Medical Textile also strives to provide support. Not only does it donate the factory's own stock of water-soluble packaging bags to hospitals free of charge, but it also actively contacts multiple channels to purchase water-soluble packaging bags that meet WS/T508 "Technical Specifications for Washing and Disinfection of Hospital Medical Fabrics" for subsequent production and service.

Meanwhile, the company's investment in safety protection for its own employees' production has also increased significantly. The gloves, masks, protective clothing, and other items regularly distributed for production have been doubled. Moreover, the specifications of the protective clothing have been upgraded, changing from the original back-tied isolation gowns to the current professional protective suits with integrated hoods.

To further prevent infection risks, Xinyuan Medical Textile employees' work clothes are centrally washed and disinfected daily by the company. Each employee is provided with waterless hand sanitizer, and reminder chimes are set to prompt regular hand cleaning and disinfection during work. Dedicated staff are assigned to record and supervise all protective measures throughout the production process.

At the end of the interview, Kang Lihong, General Manager of Xinyuan Medical Textile, stated: Regardless of the difficulties and challenges faced, Xinyuan Medical Textile will actively seek all available support, fully leverage the cohesion and combat effectiveness of on-duty employees, ensure self-protection safety, and according to relevant laws, regulations, and policy standards and requirements, serve customers at higher standards regardless of cost. We aim to provide customers with safe and high-quality washing and disinfection products and services, do our utmost to improve hospital infection logistics support, and firmly commit to winning the battle against the epidemic!

Source: Xinyuan Medical Textile (Sanhe) Washing Service Co., Ltd.

Compiled and reported by "China Laundry"