Simply Clean Laundry COVID-19 Response – Part 3 – All about that Cleaning – March 20th, 2020
We remain committed to working as long as advised to support the many families and businesses that rely on our services. We are taking extra precautions to ensure the safety of our staff and customers. We wanted to send out this follow up message to keep you updated on our procedures and make sure we communicate exactly what we’re doing in response to the recent news. Our number one priority is to maintain a healthy and safe environment for our customers and our employees.
Many of the procedural changes you see below are in part due to Mark’s (Co-owner) background in the pharmaceutical industry. Mark majored in Microbiology and minored in Chemistry before working in his previous life as a QC Manager for a major pharmaceutical company here in St. Louis. Mark was in charge of all the environmental monitoring (bacterial and air sampling) on site and for setting up clean rooms that required an aseptic environment for filling syringes/vials of manufactured drugs. As part of that, Mark was required to test, trend, and investigate issues that centered around all aspects of maintaining a clean environment on site. This experience definitely helps in creating processes to create clean areas, cleaning schedules, segregation, etc.
In addition to our normal procedures, we have also added/re-enforced the following:
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The facility was bleached and cleaned including all workable surfaces including carts, tables, and other high contact surfaces and continue to be done daily.
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Dirty laundry and clean laundry are not mixed and are stored in separate areas at our facility and care is taken with dividers in the vans to ensure the same separation.
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We have changed the residential bags we’re using to a totally washable nylon bag that will be washed with the customers laundry each time.
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We have always had dedicated dirty sorting areas for incoming laundry. We have a nice workflow that includes the dirty storage area that moves to the dirty sorting area, and from there everything moves through washers and dryers and comes out to clean tables for folding and packing.
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We have instructed employees to wear masks in addition to the gloves they already wear for sorting incoming laundry.
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Employees are also advised to not manipulate or jostle the laundry any more than they have to.
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Washer temps will be increased to warm for all incoming washing and all laundry is dried at a minimum of 140 degrees.
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Laundry taken from the dryers is assumed to be disinfected based on washing and drying temps and will be placed on a clean cart, then moved to a clean table, and then bagged in a clean plastic bag, and then put in a clean nylon bag. From there, it is moved to the clean storage area for laundry/linen before being delivered back to you.
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Drivers are protecting themselves during pickups and dropoffs with gloves and masks as needed.
While no one can guarantee 100% protection, we wanted to make sure we let all customers know the procedures we are taking to help maintain a clean and safe environment for our customers and employees. Thank you for your continued support.
Mark & Kathy Huntebrinker