Healthcare

March 11, 2020 | Healthcare

Morgan Healthcare takes pride in providing the best possible care for scrubs and healthcare linens, especially when it comes to the cleanliness and sanitation of our products. As an HLAC-certified company, we provide laundry services that process reusable textiles for hospitals, nursing homes and other healthcare facilities with the highest standards for patient safety and protection from infection.

 

With the spread of viruses so prominent in today’s news, Morgan Healthcare provides top-of-the-line laundry services to all customers. Our HLAC certification ensures all linens are properly cleaned and cared for.

 

With HLAC, Morgan Healthcare prevents the spread of infection by properly handling soiled laundry and linens. As a healthcare-accredited laundry facility, we properly clean and care for your scrubs daily at a to prevent the spread of infection. We recommend that you do not take your scrubs home each day to ensure you are not transporting infectious diseases.

 

Another way we prevent the spread is by utilizing our scrub program. We launder, deliver and service scrubs to your facility on a weekly basis, ensuring a clean set of scrubs every day.

 

Prevent the spread of infection by continuing to choose Morgan Healthcare. Read more about our HLAC Accreditation Standards.

 

To learn more or to make your laundry services HLAC certified, Check out https://www.hlacnet.org/ to read up on the certification and all it can bring to your operation.

January 20, 2020 | Healthcare

Some jobs, especially in healthcare, may require personnel to wear scrubs, whether for safety reasons, for a unified appearance, or for easy identification of staff members. Medical scrubs in only one style and color used to be the norm, but today’s scrub suits take body shape, comfort, and style into consideration. If your work wardrobe consists primarily of men’s or women's scrubs, don’t you deserve to wear something you like that looks good and fits you properly? Here are a few reasons why you can do your job better if your scrubs fit well.

One Size Does Not Fit All

Even with the standard small through extra-large sizing, scrubs do not all fit the same because people are not shaped the same. You may prefer petite sizing for your smaller frame or a more relaxed fit with extra room across the hips and thighs. Perhaps you are expecting and need a scrub suit that can accommodate your pregnancy. In addition to sizing, you can also find slim-cut, classic fit, and a more form-fitting athletic fit to keep the material closer to your body and less likely to catch on door handles, drawers, or other equipment. Scrubs are available in plenty of sizes to suit every body type, so there is no reason to settle for an uncomfortable scrub suit.

A Sense of Style

Remember the old days of hospital green or blue unisex scrubs and their boxy, utilitarian style? Now, you can find scrubs of every color of the rainbow, patterns, seasonal options, and more. You can also find a variety of neck styles, such as V-neck, round, or a square shape. If regular cotton isn’t your preference, you can opt for a fabric blend with a bit of stretch to make bending, squatting, or reaching easier. Scrub tops come in different hem lengths and slits on the sides to easier movement or personal preference, and pants can be either buttoned or drawstring for a more secure fit. Some offices prefer to coordinate colors for different days of the week or opt for customized tops with embroidered logos for a professional look.

Extra, Extra

Aside from style and size, scrubs can have different features to make them essential to your line of work. For example, you can get chest or side pockets on tops and extra pockets on pants to tote around items you use frequently, such as pens or cell phones. What you if you could get medical scrubs that were stain- and wrinkle-resistant? How about an athletic fit with moisture-wicking fabric, more like workout clothes than traditional scrubs? With some of the newer features, you may find your scrub sets last longer and stay in better condition, meaning you won’t have to replace them as often.

So Many Choices

Scrubs should be comfortable, especially when you work long shifts with little time to rest, but they can also make you feel stylish and professional. Morgan Services turns to Fashion Seal Healthcare when looking for a balance of style, comfort and durability in scrubs, to lab coats, and everything in between. Check out their selection online or call us at (888) 966-7426 to learn how we can best serve you.
 

December 18, 2019 | Healthcare

Healthcare-associated infections, or HAIs, are complications of healthcare and linked with high morbidity and mortality. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 1 in 25 U.S. hospital patients is diagnosed with at least one infection related to hospital care each year. And with fast-moving bacterial infections like MRSA reaching near-epidemic levels in healthcare environments, controlling the spread of pathogens has never been more immediate.

The threat of HAIs is considered a “Winnable Battle” which the CDC defines as “public health priorities where CDC and its partners can make significant progress ending epidemics and eliminating diseases in a relatively short time period.” With the right procedures and systems in place, healthcare facilities can work to eliminate the dangerous spread of pathogens.

Hand hygiene should be top of mind

Although most healthcare facilities have strict requirements for their employees to wash their hands regularly, studies have shown staff adhere to those requirements about 40 percent of the time. Properly washing your hands – whether you’re a healthcare worker, visitor, or patient yourself – is one of the easiest and most effective ways of controlling the spread of infection.

Employ proper facility cleaning techniques

Using the proper materials and techniques for cleaning healthcare facilities is key to controlling the spread of pathogens. Microfiber, for example, is a strong, lint-free, ultra-fine fiber that is more effective than traditional cotton fiber and removes bacteria, even without chemicals. It is the one of the most effective products for cleaning and is widely accepted for use in healthcare facilities.

Make sure healthcare staff aren’t adding to the risk

Your healthcare staff interacts with patients hundreds if not thousands of times a day. Being only a glancing touch away, the risk of infection spreading from a lab coat or a nurse’s uniform to a patient is much greater than you think. Superbugs such as MRSA and CRE can live on lab coats for up to 56 days, and studies have shown pathogens were found on 20% of nurses’ uniforms at the end of their shift. It is vital for infection control that lab coats and scrubs are laundered properly and laundered often.

October 15, 2019 | Healthcare

Healthcare professionals are no strangers to being on their feet, with few chances to sit down during a shift. But if the proper safety measures are not taken, foot, leg and back pain, general fatigue, and sometimes even permanent damage can occur. In fact, workers can start feeling negative effects after just two hours of continuous standing.

While most employers are diligent in providing proper breaks throughout each shift, there are many instances in healthcare where there is simply no choice. Surgical procedures, for example, can last hours on end. Surgeons and OR support staff have little – if any – chance to pause for relief.

So how do healthcare facilities ensure their staff is as comfortable and safe as possible? Anti-fatigue mats are one effective and easy way to help those who are on their feet for extended periods of time perform at their best.

The benefits of anti-fatigue mats

As you can tell from the name, the primary purpose of an anti-fatigue mat is to help alleviate the strain of prolonged standing. Hard surfaces (e.g., tile or concrete) can increase the negative effects of prolonged standing, as opposed to standing on a softer surface (e.g., rubber or cork). For this reason, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration recommends employers provide anti-fatigue mats for employees who spend significant time on their feet.

In addition to the reduced foot pressure, anti-fatigue mats provide several other benefits, including:

  • Improved posture
  • Increased productivity
  • Reduced slips and falls

Anti-fatigue mats available from Morgan Healthcare are made of a durable, closed-cell Nitrile foam rubber that is resistant to grease, oil and chemicals and are treated with an anti-microbial that makes these mats perfect for a healthcare environment.

Click here to learn more about our anti-fatigue mat rental service.

September 23, 2019 | Healthcare

Morgan Healthcare is proud to be HLAC certified. But, what does that mean for customers? Here’s a quick FAQ about HLAC certification and how it benefits our customers nationwide:

 

What is the HLAC?

The Healthcare Laundry Accreditation Council (HLAC) is a nonprofit organization that inspects and accredits laundries that process reusable textiles for hospitals, nursing homes and other healthcare facilities. Their mission is to accredit laundries processing healthcare textiles based on the highest standards for patient safety and infection prevention.

 

What does it mean to be accredited?

HLAC accreditation, which is good for three years, means that a laundry meets HLAC Accreditation Standards. These standards have been documented, published and professionally recognized. Accreditation affirms that a laundry organization that processes healthcare linens has successfully passed an inspection of the following: its facility, policies and procedures, training programs, and its relationships with its healthcare customers.

The standards include:

  • Handling soiled laundry
  • Transporting linens to laundering
  • Finishing/packaging clean laundry
  • Customer service
  • Patient safety
  • OSHA-required practices (i.e. Bloodborne Pathogen Exposure Control Standards)

View a PDF of the HLAC Accreditation Standards.

 

What are the benefits of getting certified?

The HLAC Accreditation Program boasts four main benefits to certification:

  1. Patient Safety: HLAC-accredited laundries are part of the safety solution in healthcare’s effort to provide patients with the utmost in care.
  2. Quality Improvement: Meeting and maintaining HLAC Accreditation Standards means a laundry has committed to a new level of excellence in the way it processes healthcare textiles.
  3. Credibility/Knowledge: To the healthcare customer, a laundry’s HLAC accreditation is like a dividend validating the laundry’s expertise, believability, dependability, reliability and soundness.
  4. Competitive Edge: All of the benefits of HLAC accreditation, when combined, give a laundry a genuine advantage over its competitors.

 

Curious to learn more? Check out https://www.hlacnet.org/ to read up on the certification and all it brings to our operation.

July 11, 2019 | Healthcare

Think back to your last doctor visit. Were you provided a patient gown for the exam? If so, was the gown made of cloth or was it a disposable paper one?

Healthcare centers that provide disposable gowns can leave patients feeling dissatisfied with their experience. Paper gowns have a tendency to rip, and they often don’t fully cover a patient’s body, leaving them feeling exposed and uncomfortable. Here’s the top three reasons why we think cloth patient gowns are the way to go:

1.) Quality and image. Cloth gowns feel more expensive and therefore positively impact the healthcare practice’s image and their patients’ experience. Disposable products feel cheap and therefore appear to be lacking in quality. Patients might be thinking, “If they skimp on the gowns, what else are they skimping on?” It’s a “you get what you pay for” mentality, and it can negatively affect the experience the patient has at your facility.

2.) Environmentally-conscious. As you might expect, cloth patient gowns are more environmentally friendly than disposable paper ones. They create less waste – not only the gowns themselves, but also the packaging they come in. Also, the cleaning process used on cloth patient gowns is certified “Clean Green” by TRSA (Textile Rental Services Association). Switching to cloth is just one more way your facility can be making strides toward a greener practice.

3.) Inventory management. As you might imagine, it’s imperative to clean cloth gowns after every patient use. As such, linen rental services will provide inventory tracking to ensure that hospitals always have the right products on hand. Weekly inventory monitoring reports allow hospitals to get a snapshot of usages, which in turn make inventory management adjustments a breeze.

If that doesn’t convince you, take a look at some of these staggering statistics from a recent International Communications Research Study:

  • 64% of patients across America prefer wearing a cloth patient gown to one made of disposable paper.
  • 72% of patients say cloth patient gowns are more comfortable than paper gowns.

Cloth patient gowns can reduce waste, lower costs, and enhance the image of your medical practice. If you can have all that, and keep your patients feeling comfortable and secure, what’s not to like?

May 21, 2019 | Healthcare

It is said that hospitals are no place for sick people. When you look at statistics for patients who receive infections during a hospital stay, you’ll understand why. Every year in the U.S., an estimated 1.7 million patients acquire infections while in the hospital, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The White Coat

Some of these deaths may be attributed to the very clothes doctors wear, specifically their white coats, or lab coats. Although it has long been a symbol of the profession, doctors themselves are calling for an end to the practice of wearing them because they can carry pathogens from patient to patient as they make their rounds. Adding to the problem is that the coats do not receive professional laundering on a regular basis, sometimes going months between cleanings. Bacteria such as MRSA and CRE, known as superbugs because of their resistance to medication, can survive up to 56 days on the average white coat.

The scope of the problem goes beyond hospitals, however. Transfer of bacteria is prevalent in all types of nursing facilities and health clinics. And it’s not just the doctors who are transferring pathogens. Because they have adopted the habit of wearing lab coats that don’t receive regular cleaning, nurses and many other health care workers are spreading bacteria and viruses between patients.

Status Symbol

Some doctors have decided to forego wearing a white coat as a means of containing the problem. For others, the jacket symbolizes a type of “rank” that they have worked long and hard to be able to wear. Some also feel that their coats are no more harmful than the street clothes they wear beneath the coats. Besides being a status symbol, the coat is a handy place to stash pens, eyeglasses and tools of the trade, such as a stethoscope.

Lab coats also provide the added benefit of putting a patient’s mind at ease. A recent study showed that patient satisfaction can increase if their physician is wearing a lab coat. Lab coats projects authority, expertise, and confidence, and many patients feel more comfortable with a doctor who is dressed the part.

Additionally, healthcare workers have many colors and patterns to choose from in today’s scrubs, the standard industry clothing. Some facilities have taken to having workers wear lab coats over their scrubs to display a more uniform and professional appearance. For facilities that prefer the coats, as well as those who wish to retain the status symbol or convenience of wearing them, professional laundering services offer a solution to help contain the spread of pathogens to patients.

Industry Standards

The Healthcare Laundry Accreditation Council (HLAC) is an organization that sets hygienic standards for laundry used in healthcare settings. To become accredited, members such as hospitals, clinics and doctors’ offices must meet standards that cover a range of processes, from handling and transportation to laundering and delivery of that laundry to the client. The layout of a laundry facility, employee training methods and even customer service are additional areas that come under accreditation standards, as well as compliance with OSHA requirements.

For more information on how professional laundering of lab coats can help you contain the risk of cross-infecting patients, contact Morgan Healthcare, who specialize in healthcare laundering. Ask about our Lab Coat Program and how you can benefit.

March 15, 2019 | Healthcare

The problem

Maintaining scrub inventory is a huge issue for hospitals, with thousands of dollars spent annually filling inventory gaps due to lost and stolen scrubs. In fact, studies show 40% of scrub usage comes from unauthorized users. Low inventory and open linen carts make it harder for physicians to get the scrubs they need when they need them.

The solution

Morgan Healthcare has teamed up with scrubXchange to offer the most comprehensive scrub program available. The secure scrubXchange dispenser provides scrubs in 10 seconds, faster than any other high-capacity scrub dispensers. And the professionals at Morgan Healthcare launder, deliver, and load the dispenser, taking the day-to-day burden off your shoulders.

scrubXchange provides a multitude of benefits:

  • Quality scrubs are provided to promote a professional appearance to patients and visitors

  • Scrubs are always available when they are needed

  • Scrubs are always laundered and processed according to national standards for healthcare  

Better service

The scrubXchange program from Morgan Healthcare reduces labor for your hospital staff while increasing physician satisfaction.

Lower costs

The automated dispenser deducts and adds user credits as scrubs are removed and returned. This ensures scrubs are returned and virtually eliminates scrub losses and the extra charges that come with it.

Infection prevention

Enclosing scrubs in a secure dispenser drives compliance with AORN Guidelines for Surgical Attire, helping reduce the risk of surgical site infections.

 

Download our brochure for more information about the Morgan Healthcare scrubXchange program.

Download