Sterile Surgical Systems Joins UMF Corporation's PerfectCLEAN Infection Prevention Network

Sterile Surgical Systems of Tumwater, Wash., has joined UMF Corporation’s PerfectCLEAN® Infection Prevention Network (PC/Network) of specialized healthcare laundries serving acute-care hospitals and extended care and ambulatory surgical centers.

“We welcome Sterile Surgical Systems to the PC/Network family,” says George Clarke, CEO of UMF Corporation, a manufacturer and innovator of infection prevention products and training programs for processing all patient environments. “Our network continues to grow as more healthcare laundries realize the valuable competitive advantage of providing their healthcare customers a level of product, service and training that goes well beyond anything offered by larger commercial laundries.”

The PC/Network, formed in 2012, comprises healthcare laundries that specialize in processing linens and textiles to reduce the risk of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). “A PC/Network laundry offers the assurance that everything possible has been done to reduce the risk of HAIs such as Clostridium difficile and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus,” Clarke says.

Gregory Gicewicz, president of Sterile Surgical Systems, says that he has been using PerfectCLEAN to clean his own sterile pack room and laundry and that now, with joining the PC/Network, his laundry business is able to offer healthcare customers “the one-two punch” in HAI protection and patient safety.

“We’re an HLAC-accredited laundry,” Gicewicz says, referring to the nonprofit Healthcare Laundry Accreditation Council (of which he is also currently board president). “Accreditation means we can tell our healthcare customers that we process textiles based on the highest professionally recognized standards for patient safety and infection prevention. And, with joining the PC/Network, we also can tout the high performance products, elaborate training programs and product use protocols offered by UMF Corporation’s PerfectCLEAN brand,” he adds. “We believe the PerfectCLEAN products when properly laundered in an HLAC-accredited facility and properly used in patient environments provides our healthcare customers with the most optimal environmental hygiene solution available and the best protection against HAIs.”

Clarke says the PC/Network was formed in response to numerous complaints and concerns voiced by hospitals that had been renting or having PerfectCLEAN, and other products, processed by a commercial laundry company.

“Commercial laundries have little or no understanding of infection prevention, but instead rent traditional cleaning products like cotton string mops and cotton bar towels, and some provide very limited offering of so called microfiber products, ” Clarke says. “Many do not have complete separation between soiled and clean products in their plants and they do not process hospital linens nor are they comfortable or experienced in dealing with bloodborne pathogens. Furthermore, their plants are not set up to handle infection prevention systems and strategies required by healthcare to protect the patient and control HAIs. In these contagious times, a comprehensive infection prevention program must comprise training; adoption of best practices; and a high performance system of specialized products that are color-coded for areas such as operating rooms, intensive care, isolation rooms, and the patient room. This is precisely what the PerfectCLEAN Infection Prevention Network offers.”
 
Source: UMF Corporation