OLd Hospital Laundry pix

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sudsman

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Aug 8, 2006
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will post a few every few days when you get tired just let me know and I will stop Mac

8-15-2006-11-53-39--sudsman.jpg
 
Could you imagine all those sheets/towels/gowns/whatever with every disease known to man splattered with every kind of bodily fluid? Eww..
 
Sudsman--- Don't start a new thread every time you post photos; keep putting them in one thread so they'll be easily viewed by everyone. And thanks for posting them! Most of us don't get to see a lot of industrial equipment.
 
Hosptial laundries then would have used "boil" washes or massive amounts of LCB to meet disefection requirments. Further sanitation would come from the heat/pressure of the ironers. Items destined for the OR or sterile use would be autoclaved and wrapped to stay "sterile".

Today many hospital laundries (what there is left of them), and commerical laundries that process infected laundry, use a two door varations of the above washer. One door is on the "soiled" side of the laundry, the other on the "clean". Dirty laundry is placed in on one side, and when clean taken out on the other. This way clean laundry risks less chance of being contaminated by contact with "dirty" laundry or anything that came into contact (including the workers).

It is worth noting that by federal and local codes laundry infected by serious stuff (such as items coming from isolation units and or that containing large amounts of bodily fluids), are placed into plastic bags and marked. Such laundry is handled differently than other items.

Laundress

Kind of reminds one of the laundry in Shawshank Redemption.

Laundress
 
Sudsmaster

Where these taken in texas or to give nothing up about any institution, were the pics taken in a hot climate? The coolness of Air conditioning, or fresh air even if hot outdoor air? Would be a heck of choice would it not? Think I would pic fresh with some airplane sized fans. "sharps syringes and the like often end up in hospital linen". However much they were compensated, was not enough.
 
Thanks for the pics. I'm very impressed by the size of these machines. How do they work? Are they still used or do hospitals use a different type of machine now?
 
He don't need a hairnet for that chest, that's exactly what I want & need. He's MINE!! He can disco right on over to mah house!!! And yes, I is right!!, nuttin' that ain't right about me. WOOF GRR AWOOOOOO!!!!
 
While not as nasty as hospital laundries, hotel laundries can be pretty yucky.

When I was in college, I worked at the Howard Johnson's in Iowa City. I did the weekend mornings shift, where I would strip the rooms of linens and then do the laundry (The actual room cleaning was done by the "womenfolk" - mostly farmwives - who coated everything in Lysol and/or bleach. Our rooms were CLEAN!)

We had big industrial machines, and a regular set of Kenmores for the bar and restaurant stuff, but I couldn't tell you the brand. I could really gross you out with some stories, but I won't ;-)

When I moved to the big city, and worked at "real" hotels (both in Minneapolis and Seattle) it really hit me how hazardous laundry work can be. Just from the get-go, the laundry chutes are hardcore: Laundry falling 20 or so stories gains speed! But when you add guest's dry cleaning, uniform cleaning, tablecloths, and all the other foo-foo stuff to the (sometimes) nasty sheets and towels, you really have an operation on your hands. A big hotel runs their laundry 24 hours a day.
 
First, one can see what seems to be a sleeve hanging from the laundry basket, this means to me the laundry consists of garments (doctor's white jacket's, nurse's uniforms,etc; the sleeve does not seem to be from any sort of isolation gown I ever saw).

Next, by federal and local laws, laundry contaminated by bodily fluids (operating room, isolation rooms/infectious wards/rooms etc) are separated on the floors by being put in to special clearly marked bags. Such laundry is handled differently from say bedding, towels, and laundry not grossly contaminated. As for "cooties", well this does seem modern, but hospitals existed long before modern antibiotics, and laundry workers could easily be infected by any number of germs that we deal with easily today. Staf, Strep, Flu, Ecoli, etc were common infections that killed many people before WWII and "miracle" drugs came on the scene.

The washer pictured seems like a cynlinder type washer, which can run upwards of over 500lbs capacity.

Air conditioning? Not very likely, laundries generate too much heat for that. Fans probably, but much has gone into commercial laundry design for today's plants, the the object is to keep all that heat within the washers/dryers/ironers, and not released into the area.

It is worth noting many hospitals, like hotels and other places which all used to have their own in house laundries, use laundry services and have closed down their plants. It just made sense, as hospitals were not in "the laundry" business, to have the expenses associated with a large laundry. Other hospitals that are members of the same care association, have one laundry for several hospitals, to spread costs around.

The biggest "news" in hosptial laundries are tunnel washers, where soiled laundry goes in one end, and clean laundry comes out the other. Combining washing with extracting means less heavy lifting for workers (which is rapidly being replaced by machines),and one less step.

L.
 
pic

This pic is of the old St Joesph hospital laundry in Fort Worth . The machine is a Ellis 800 lb unloader . After washing the machine would raise and unload into extactor tubs or carts. If you look close you can see the machine is divided into 4 pockets each holds 200 lbs. Wash temps averaged 160 but 10% Bleach was used also.. In Early days we used dry bleach it was around 18 to 20 % chlorine .. Beaucse of the cost most of us now use only liquid beach.Also now almost all the chimicals are liquid and pumped in by remote supply injectors when called for by the programmer on the washer.
 
For those of you who just aint rite

It is all ok Mamma sez it jus bees dat way sometime ,, I Never thought anyone would be so interested ... The spanish guy in the pix name is Jose Delagato . I worked with him for almos 12 years.. A really nice guy.. He Was my head washman.. He sitll lives here in Ft Worth and has a construction remodel business.. He brings homemade tamales usually every 2 or 3 weeks and we have lunch together.. One of his sons works for me part time. And Beleive me there is not much he has not done!!!! Mac
 

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