When we consider our loved ones and their transition into an assisted living facility, we often factor in things such as comfort, care, and of course their overall health and wellbeing.

Now more than ever, hygiene matters! Especially in healthcare and aged care facilities and an Electrolux Barrier Laundry system is the best defence against the spread of micro-organisms and cross infections through resident laundry.

The Star of the Sea Retirement Village is a state-of-the-art aged care residence in Torquay situated amongst over 240km of stunning coastline with the very best laundry system to care for their residents.

Residents of the Star of the Sea Retirement Village in Torquay enjoy independent living whilst taking advantage of the resort-style facilities and community environment. Proudly displayed on the walls of the Star of the Sea aged care residence is a plaque which reads in bold blue writing, “Our residents do not live in our workplace, we work in their ‘home’.

During a recent tour of the Star of the Sea Retirement Village at its superb coastal location, Resident Services Manager Andrew Venosta explains, “one of the fundamental principles of the laundry service operations in residential aged care is to

ensure minimisation and minimised risk of cross infection”. “Everything we do here at Star of the Sea is about the residents in their home, their lifestyle and their quality of life at the end of the day.”

Andrew then goes on to state “with respect to our residents we need to be able to launder their clothing and we need to do it well, we need to ensure we can return it at an acceptable standard. We like our residents to be happy and looking good and feeling good about how they appear, so we need a laundry that enables us to achieve that.”

But the usage of the Barrier Laundry System doesn’t just stop at laundering clothing. The facility also utilises its Electrolux Barrier washers versatility to launder its dining sheets, napkins, bed linens, cleaning cloths, mop heads and more.

After getting a firsthand tour of the world class facilities at the Star of the Sea, Andrew proudly explained, “Electrolux were brought into the project right at the beginning because they have the expertise and we invited them to come and provide us with a scope and a brief for our laundry requirements. I would recommend the Electrolux machinery, it’s simple to use, it has had minimal maintenance and it’s well supported by the service aspects of the company.”

When it comes to hygiene control, Electrolux recognises that there is no room for compromise. Which is why aged care residences like the Star of the Sea Retirement Village trust Electrolux Barrier Washers to get the job done safely and efficiently.

Electrolux Professional is the global expert in linen hygiene and offers the  broadest range of solutions and best program flexibility on the market.

Everything is developed in close cooperation with global hygiene experts to  ensure your laundry and hygiene needs are met.

To find out more about building a sustainable business with  Electrolux Professional, take a look at our full range of commercial laundry equipment.

Le Foyer de vie Les Cattelaines is located in a beautiful park in Haubourdin, not far from Lille. Carole Laviéville, young director of the establishment, took office in February 2016 and contributed to the opening of the first restaurant Cattelaines, in June 2016. Open since 1999, Le Foyer de vie and the day care services Les Cattelaines belong to the White Butterflies of Lille. The structure accommodates 51 people in the boarding school and 30 people in the day school, all of which have learning disabilities. “A satisfaction survey conducted in 2013, revealed that cold meals delivered by a service, were unsatisfactory. That is why, in the framework of improvement objectives, the association decided to create a tailor-made restaurant within the establishment. Call for tenders launched in spring 2015 was won by the company Quiétalis, which recommended the Electrolux brand for the kitchen equipment.”  says Ms. Laviéville.

The kitchen and the restaurant were inaugurated on June 21, 2016. From this moment on, meals are cooked on site by Medirest. All residents of the home, educational staff and administrative bodies are brought together for lunch in a real dining room. The atmosphere is friendly and fun and the food recovered its real taste. Chief Executive Officer of Médirest, Bruno Pontus, arrived a week before the opening of the restaurant to familiarize with the equipment. “With Electrolux, everything goes very well”, he confirms, “In addition, I have new and powerful equipment; it’s a real comfort and saves time. The combination oven is very efficient”.

“It is a brand which expresses confidence and convinced us with its robustness and design. The high quality of the finished product was reassuring”, commented Ms. Laviéville. Some of the residents themselves assist Bruno Pontus in the kitchen. In agreement with Foyer de Vie, four residents help the kitchen team from 9 am to 11.30 am as part of their project. The restaurant is operational Monday to Friday as self-service with an average of 80 seats. Cold meals are served on weekends and at night. Residents are thrilled and waiting lunchtime impatiently, “They’re all there in front of the restaurant door at 11:50!” declares Carole Laviéville with a smile.

In one of the characteristic hills of the inlands of Senigallia, outside the historic walls of Ostra (AN), is the Moroni-Antonini-Morganti Foundation. A multipurpose facility that houses, in two separate areas of the former Franciscan monastery, the Protected Residence of Ostra and the Rest Home: specialized in assistance for the elderly.

For over 30 years, the Electrolux Professional agency for the province of Ancona, Olivia Manzoni, has supported the foundation by providing the best equipment, layout, design and after sales support catered to their specific needs.

The agency’s work was essential in order to set up the kitchen and, most recently, the new laundry facility.

Til now, an external company had been responsible for the washing of guest’s clothing and linen. Today, Raimondo Paradisi, President of the foundation, chose to bring the laundry service back on the premises, by setting up a new laundry area with equipment capable of meeting the most stringent containment requirements of bacterial growth, a crucial aspect for a structure that puts the guest’s wellbeing at the center of everything.

The choice fell on the Electrolux Professional barrier system that is characterized by the clear separation of the two loading / unloading environments, thus reducing the risk of bacterial proliferation and cross-contamination. The dirty laundry is loaded from one side and withdrawn from the other clean, guaranteeing maximum hygiene. The new laundry consists of 3 barrier washing machines, 2 dryers, 1 drying ironer (for 1.90m of usable ironing space) and 2 ironing boards.

A comprehensive service that, if on one hand it was designed for the welfare of the guests, they see their belongings treated with care, like at home, on the other hand it made it possible to optimize the work of the dedicated staff, while reducing operating expenses. An investment that has led to a real reduction of costs and wants to be an example and inspiration also for neighboring realities.

After creating two nursing homes in 2011, Clinique Saint-Élisabeth inaugurated a third on January 1^st, 2014, in Metzervisse, with 72 beds. This was an opportunity to modernize the central laundry, now the washing and drying areas are fully equipped by Electrolux Professional.

“Prior to this, at the Thionville clinic, the central laundry area and the equipment were obsolete. The change was not only to improve the quality of the services offered to our patients and residents, but also to provide our workers with new, more efficient and truly ergonomic working appliances.
We wanted to further expand our business and gradually reintegrate the processing of uniforms to sustain the workers, while allowing the development of new skills, which may ultimately benefit other institutions”, says director Patrick Lstiburek.

The new laundry, which covers 500m², currently processes 200 tons of laundry per year. A volume expected to increase in the medium term, the capacity of 1.3 tons per day is now possible thanks to the installation of the new solution.

“With the arrival of new projects, including the management of a hospital laundry and additional nursing homes, it was essential”, notes the director. “The increase in work load is gradual to facilitate the operators, he said. We wanted to give them time to adapt to this new environment, characterized by advanced equipment, by automating certain tasks and a reorganization of work flows. Respect for working conditions is a priority within our quality approach. Furthermore, we must also ensure optimal traceability of the washing performance and we achieved this with Electrolux”.

“The barrier solution with Evolution and Pullman washer-extractors allows to efficiently examine the bacteriological quality of the linen, says the director. They are also in line with our commitment to sustainable development, with 99 pre-set programs – of which 15 used to date, and the possibility to interface them with our detergents management system. We can control and limit our consumptions and reduce emissions”.

Quiet and ergonomic, these washers are characterized by a remarkable daily output: developed for easy loading and unloading, they provide a significant savings in time, equivalent to a wash cycle per day.

The ironer also has several advantages, as explained by Antoine Picarella, Electrolux Professional Regional Manager: “I will cite for example the ceramic ramp, an Electrolux patented system that reduces gas consumption by 20%”.

The dryers measure the presence of residual moisture in the heart of the linen and stop automatically when the textiles are dry, thus again providing a significant energy savings.

The Electrolux solutions installed in the laundry are:

• 4 barrier washer-extractors, Evolution and Pullman (2x90kg, 1x50kg and 1×25 kg)
• 1 cylinder ironer 325mm
• 2x60kg dryers have been added to the existing 20kg dryer

Electrolux Professional has provided the kitchen and laundry equipment for Kingfisher Court – a specialist mental health facility located at the Kingsley Green site near Radlett, Hertfordshire.

The facility, which opened in June 2014, is the culmination of over four years planning and a £42m investment from the Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust’s (HPFT).

The design for Kingfisher Court has drawn upon international best practice to create a healing and therapeutic environment for people on their recovery journey from mental illness.

With 86 bedrooms on five separate wards, the well-thought-out design had to be clinically sound, and the process went much further than this to ensure catering and laundry practices met the exact requirements and ambitions of the facility, while adhering to the very highest hygiene standards.

The contractors at Kingfisher Court worked closely with Electrolux Professional partner RH Hall for the specification of three laundries worth.

The main laundry room consists of three Evolution Barrier washers from Electrolux Professional’s Line 5000.

The Line 5000 Barrier healthcare solution has been designed so the dirty linen is loaded on the dirty side of the machine, and removed on the clean (opposite) side of the barrier wall.

This means that when the washing is taken out, there is absolutely no chance of re-contamination where the soiled cloths may have left bacteria.

After visiting the Electrolux Professional Center of Excellence to see this concept in action, it seemed to be the ideal solution for the facility and is now used to launder bedding and towels.

Through implementing a system of laundry cycle management, the healthcare centre is sure that there is no chance of contamination at any stage in the laundry process.

A second laundry within the facility specifically cleans microfibre based mops and cloths which are now completely reusable. Unique to Electrolux Professional’s Line 5000, is the Electrolux Hygiene Watchdog, which assures hospitals that any wash program is performed in full before it can be unloaded on the clean side. The technology also boasts the potential to install up to 200 personalised wash programmes for full operational flexibility. The barrier machines are backed by three T5675 tumble dryers and a 1650mm IC43316 ironer which complete the laundry process.

Kingfisher Court also possesses a traditional laundry for each of the five wards, which are used to launder patient garments with specialist quick washing and drying cycles.

“We knew what type of laundry we were aiming for and Electrolux Professional fitted our specific criteria. Our barrier laundry is our most important feature and provides complete cleanliness and also peace of mind for our staff. Electrolux Professional and RH Hall worked closely with us throughout the specification and installation process and we have received additional support since to ensure we’re using the ironing equipment to its fullest potential.”

Lisa Wellings, Project Manager at Kingfisher Court

Electrolux Professional also worked with Kingfisher Court on the kitchen design to ensure streamlined catering for every resident and consistent delivery of meals throughout the day. The facility required a combi oven to meet the needs of a versatile menu, and the Electrolux Professional air-o-steam Touchline combi was chosen due to its compliance with the highest hygiene standards through HACCP data control, the variety of cooking programs it possesses and its integrated, fully automatic self-clean functions.

A complete 900XP horizontal cooking suite was also supplied including a bratt pan, four burners, and fryers. The hospital also utilised Electrolux equipment for its warewashing, a green&clean Hood Type machine was installed in the main kitchen and under counter green&clean dishwashers in the ward kitchens. These machines enable the user to wash up to 80 racks per hour, while guaranteeing every cycle sterilises the products at over 84°C.

Ed Fazakerley, Project Manager for the kitchen at Kingfisher Court commented:

“Electrolux Professional is a well-established and well respected manufacturer of commercial catering equipment which has developed a strong working relationship with IFSE – the UK’s leading catering design and fitout company – who are an approved Interserve catering contractor.

“Electrolux and IFSE worked with us to put the design and tender proposal together which the Trust were pleased with so we were happy to work with both parties who helped us complete a very testing project on time and to the standard expected by our client.

As the main supplier of all the key catering equipment, Electrolux Professional has been proactive in terms of handover processes, training and after sales and we hope to continue to use the equipment for many years to come.”

In 2013, during the main development and renovation, DPS Syrena decided to invest in an in-house Barrier Washer laundry solution consisting of: 2 x WB180H washers, 1 x T5290 dryer, 1 x T5550 dryer, 1 x IC43320 cylinder ironer and CMIS System (Certus Management Information System).

This Electrolux Professional laundry solution fulfills all their hygienic requirements and gives them total control over the quality and availability of the linen. Furthermore, CMIS allows them to optimize and validate the laundry processes.

“DPS Syrena is one of the biggest care homes in Warsaw. Personally, I know all our clients by name and have direct contact with them. A few years ago, I started to renovate the care institution. My goal was to have a warm and accommodating place for our guests, in a modern environment. Electrolux Professional fitted my concept and vision very well. I am happy to have had such a partner for such a long time.”

Ms. Malgorzata Slomian, Director of DPS Syrena

With staff working in a care home environment constantly being tasked to deliver only the highest of standards when it comes to hygiene, Belong Warrington is showing how a successfully-managed laundry system can play a vital part in infection control.

The Belong Group is part of CLS Care Services Ltd; one of the largest providers of care homes in the North West, and a recognised market leader in dementia care. Built in the summer of 2014, Belong Warrington is a £9.5 million state-of-the-art care village, which is not only home to 72 residents, but also boasts 18 independent living apartments. With a bistro, spa, hair salon, events venue and even a gym, there is a whole manner of facilities available to residents and the local community. Organised days out, activities, and parties, give the residents opportunities to socialise and be entertained within the safety and comfort of their own home.

In contrast to the unreliable equipment endured by many older care facilities, Belong Warrington is able to allow every one of its residents and their families the assurance that comes with a state-of-the-art barrier laundry system – a suite of technologies designed and laid out to completely avoid any risk of bacterial contamination.

The main laundry comprises of two Electrolux Professional WB5180H Barrier Washing Machines; each of which sits between the laundry’s pre- and post-wash areas. This ensures that items are loaded from one side of the machine when dirty and unloaded from a separate, clean side, when the cycle has finished – allowing operators to make sure that there is absolutely no chance of recontamination. Electrolux Professional’s Hygiene Watchdog ensures that any wash program performs to its end before it allows unloading on the clean side for the most robust of hygiene guarantees. Each washing machine also boasts the lightest and largest doors on the market; making it simple to operate.

Thanks to a wall which provides a barrier that avoids any potential for dirty laundry to come into contact with clean, the housekeeping staff at Belong Warrington are able to process all residents’ laundry according to a set of Laundry Cycle Management procedures which maximises hygiene.

Jo Watson, head housekeeper at Belong Warrington, explains: “From the outset, the laundry was specifically designed to avoid cross-contamination. The Barrier system we have in place is central to that, but it can only perform to its full capabilities if staff ensure they follow the specific management process we have in place.”

Every housekeeper is required to put on their Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) before emptying the collected laundry into the washing machine on the dirty side. Once they have selected the appropriate setting on the washing machine, they will then walk into an area between the dirty and clean rooms, where PPE is removed and hands are cleaned before entering the clean side of the laundry.

Once the cycle has finished, the clean linen is emptied into a basket and taken over to the two T5550 tumble dryers, where the appropriate program is selected and excellent finishing results are guaranteed. With a 550l capacity, each dryer is designed specifically to ensure safe and simple operation thanks to its large door opening, easy-to-use interface, and low noise levels. The final action is for each item to be finished and ironed where required using the Electrolux bed type ironer, before being stored appropriately. For those items of clothing requiring extra attention and precision, the use of an ironing table allows for a neat finish.

With the need to ensure each and every item is delivered clean, both from a hygiene and aesthetic perspective, sluice washes are the laundry department’s biggest challenge.

Jo continues: “When a resident has a soiled item of clothing to be washed, it is put in a red dissolvable bag, which indicates that it is foul and infected. The default wash setting for this is 71°C, but as some clothes are delicate and need to be washed at a lower temperature, it is important that we select the correct program for delicates so clothes are not returned damaged.

“The best thing about the barrier washing machines we have is the ease in which we are able to change the settings to suit our requirements. I can wash a soiled delicate item on a lower temperature, but change the dosing to that of a foul and infected item, and all at the press of a button.”

Each independent living apartment has one W555H Commercial Washing Machine and one T5130C Single Pocket Dryer to enable residents to do their own washing. However they also have the luxury of sending it for the housekeeping staff to wash, dry, and iron, within the same day. With high demand for its services, simple operation of the laundry equipment is vital – something the staff at Belong Warrington have come to expect having relied on their equipment since it was installed a year ago.

Jo concludes: “The best thing about the equipment is how easy it is to use. Although the technology driving each process is very advanced, the interface is simple as a cycle can be started with the push of just a couple of buttons. Not only that, but the cycles are fast and efficient and the machines are able to take a lot on without breaking down or causing us any issues.

 “The washing machines are undoubtedly our most vital piece of kit. They are literally running all day, and the vast majority of washes are sluice, yet they still continue to do their job effectively every time. The layout of the laundry certainly helps productivity and cleanliness, but that wouldn’t be possible without the style of the machines, and their placement – which Electrolux helped us to design. The system we have in place here at our Warrington Village has worked so well that identical systems have already been specified for our next three villages.”

Milton Keynes Hospital has long possessed an OPL for the laundering of cleaning materials, but in 2013 the equipment began to reach the end of its operational life so the hospital sought a new solution.
With the location of the laundry and composition of the room not complying with infection control requirements, staff at the hospital were faced with finding a better suited facility. The previous installation was a traditional laundry solution so needed to be re-configured to provide more space and guarantee infection control practices – particularly as the configuration of the room also made it an unsuitable working environment. The aim during the specification process and refurbishment was to improve laundry cycle management, contamination control and also ensure a quick turnaround on the washing of mops and cloths. Milton Keynes hospital teamed up with Electrolux Professional to re-design the facility with the supply of a £34,000 complete barrier laundry solution.

At the beginning of the specification process, Electrolux utilised the hospital’s original CAD drawings to find a way to build an infection control laundry. The favoured solution for complete cleanliness was a barrier concept, which creates separate areas for dirty laundry to be loaded on the dirty side, and for sanitised laundry to be unloaded on the clean side. Creating two separate areas was a challenge to design with the space available. The hospital put the equipment supply out to tender and it was the designers, Electrolux Professional who came out on top. A redesign of the space was required and structural engineers were consulted to confirm that the layout suggested by Electrolux was feasible and the design was created to ensure a suitable workflow from dirty to clean. The decision was made to install barrier washers and double tumble dryers from the Electrolux Professional Line 5000.
The Line 5000 Barrier healthcare solution has been designed so the dirty mops and cloths machine doors are loaded on the dirty side of the machine, and removed on the clean (opposite) side of the barrier wall. This means that when the washing is taken out, there is absolutely no chance of re-contamination where the soiled cloths may have left bacteria. Unique to Electrolux Professional Line 5000, is the Electrolux Hygiene Watchdog, which assures hospitals that any wash program is performed in full before it can be unloaded on the clean side. The technology also boasts the potential to install up to 200 personalised wash programmes for full operational flexibility.

To assure best practice, all washing cycles in the advanced process must either possess a thermal disinfection cycle that reaches 71°C for at least three minutes, or 65°C for at least ten minutes. Alternatively, the equipment must commence a chemical disinfectant process that satisfies the requirements in the section ‘Disinfection of linen’ in the ‘Management and Provision’ Volume of CFPP 01-04. Heavily soiled items can also pass through a pre-wash sluice cycle before entering a general load which is ideal for the hospital as microfiber cleaning accessories and mops can often come into contact with heavily contaminated floor spaces and areas.
The barrier system is a flagship concept for hygiene – not only due to the innovation of the equipment but the entire process of laundry cycle management including every step from the collection of dirty linen, to delivery of the clean garments.

Adrian Clarke, Domestic Services Manager at Milton Keynes Hospitalcommented: “The capacity of laundry was an important consideration for us and in partnership with Electrolux Professional, we’ve built a facility that will clean around 1,000 cloths and 1,000 mops per day which allows our cleaning staff to maintain a good supply of materials, and gives us reassurance that every item is completely clean. “Maintenance was a real selling point for us when we chose to invest in Electrolux equipment. The previous equipment I inherited upon joining the hospital was Electrolux and their team of engineers helped to maintain the equipment at peak performance for many years. When equipment is in constant use for [twelve] hours every day, naturally it won’t last forever, but Electrolux do everything they can to make it perform at its peak for as long as possible.”
“We still outsource our bedding and other linen to an external facility because we don’t have the capacity to build a full service OPL at the moment, but it’s safe to say we’re saving a lot of money on laundering our microfiber mops and cloths. I’d recommend other hospitals investigate OPL solutions provided by Electrolux Professional if they get the opportunity in terms of infection control and also greater control over their internal processes.”

Milton Keynes hospital is one of 30 barrier laundry installations Electrolux Professional have completed across the UK and Ireland.