Healthcare Laundry Quality Guidelines

Welcome to the Healthcare Laundry Quality Guidelines. This collection of U.S. standards, guidelines, and recommended practice represent a vast array of information gathered for ease of reference and use by ALM members.

These standards, guidelines, and recommended practice are applicable for laundry and linen services provided throughout the United States. In addition, each state (with the exception of Iowa, Maryland, and Ohio) also has the autonomy to enact statutes that either support the national applications or require more stringent compliance for that state.

The time and research used to compile these references was provided from the dues of ALM members and should not be shared with non-members. All the information contained herein is public record, but has been gathered and compiled for ease of use by ALM.

Please note, none of these documents may be printed.

This guide is not intended to be legal advice or the sole tool for assessing the quality of a healthcare laundry operation. The guidance is provided to assemble in one place, the myriad of research, guidance, and best practice recommended for use in the industry. Facilities should utilize the original resources when making their determination. The hospital is responsible for determining compliance based on their understanding/interpretation of the requirements and alignment with the hospitals policies and procedures.

The compendium addresses only hospital services, and this guidance does not necessarily translate to practice in other healthcare facilities such as nursing homes and clinics. This guide does not cover the guidance provided for the operation of a pack room used to assemble and/or sterilize packs for use in sterile situations such as surgery. Those standards can be obtained from the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation. Guidance on sterilization is provided under the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for contracted laundry services providing this function.

States omitted from the list provided below may have guidance specific to their state; however, that state’s information is currently inaccessible. Note that the state specific data is updated periodically and without notice; however, dates of the most recent review are provided.

The national regulations document is a robust PDF that has bookmarks to allow ease of finding the regulation needed. When accessing the document online, the bookmarks are available in a dropdown at the top right of your screen. They are organized by function and alphabetically by key topic. The table of contents is also clickable. Just select the item you want to visit and that page will open. If you choose to download the document, the bookmarks panel will be on the left side of your screen and visible at all times unless you choose to close it. Reading the “How to Use the Compendium” section is recommended.

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