RAL Quality Certification Mark 992/4 for Textiles from Care Home Residents - the Best Way to Prevent Infection
For many care home residents, wearing their own clothes is a very important part of their personality. The RAL Hygiene Certificate for Textiles from Care Home Residents ensures optimum infection prevention through the greatest possible hygiene safety, in addition to the proper and gentle treatment of all types of textiles.Textiles from care homes residents
In order to support care facilities to ensure the hygiene security of the residents own textiles, in 2012 the German Certification Association for Professional Textile Services created the quality certification mark RAL-GZ 992/4 for residents' textiles from care homes. In contrast to the processing of general textiles in care homes, which according to the current recommendation by the Robert Koch Institute “Prevention of infections in care homes” have to undergo a disinfectant wash cycle, the responsibility for the hygiene status of residents' textiles lies with the care facilities or the appointed commercial laundries. The processing of residents' textiles is not subject to specific legal regulation and mainly includes:
- Washable outer garments such as trousers, blouses or jumpers
- Undergarments, such as pyjamas, underwear or socks
- Non-washable outer garments such as silk blouses
Hygienic handling and proper processing of all types of textiles in care homes is an important contribution to infection prevention. In the processing of textiles from care homes which includes, in addition to residents' textiles, general textiles from wards and/or laundry from the catering sector, the quality certification mark user must prove that it meets the normative standards for laundry according to RAL-GZ 992/2 from the health care system and/or GZ 992/3 laundry from the food processing industry. In addition, the RAL-GZ 992/4 is an independent quality certification mark and can be awarded after the provision of proof of process control, certified through RAL-GZ 992/1 domestic and commercial laundry, and the hygiene standard. The hygiene status is verified by experts from Hohenstein in annual, unannounced site inspections. Laboratory tests on water samples from different areas of the laundry facility, wipe tests from employees' hands and the processed laundry provide information about the general state of hygiene in the operation.
Example of a RAL-GZ 992/4 certificate proofing compliance with DIN EN 14065
