Professional Comment

Mattress Maintenance Services Helping Hospitals and Care Homes Spring into Action

By Truan Remmington – Contracts Development Executive – Spearhead Healthcare

In order to bring a mattress back into service after use, it needs to be completely cleaned and decontaminated to approved standards that guarantee bacterium and viruses such as C.Diff and MRSA are killed, and no cross contamination occurs.

A challenge with mattress cleaning is not only that it requires large commercial washing machines but that different mattress types also require different treatment. The construction of air pressure mattress- es for example means they cannot be washed in high temperature machines, requiring cold-water disinfection instead. The only certified process avail- able, OTEX, injects ozone into each wash, killing all the harmful microorganisms without using the heat or chemicals of traditional laundering.

However, having the time, staff, and the facilities required to provide

this level of deep clean for each of your mattresses can prove very costly. In additional to it being potentially dangerous, there is also a high probability of reputational damage if stan-

dards slip and go unnoticed by your staff, because this is something patients and their families will always, quite rightly, notice and report.

The right rental and maintenance service will not only provide you with an appropriate mattress when you need it, but offer fast cleaning, repairs, and replacements, ensuring mattresses are up to the required standards. This undoubtedly saves you money in the long term, provides the best possible levels of care to your patients and residents, and reassures all stakeholders that hygiene is a top priority; a must in the current climate.

WHAT SHOULD YOU LOOK FOR?

So what should you look for in a rental service – apart from a wide range of special purpose mattresses? Here are a few key pointers:

• Rapid breakdown response
• All work carried out by trained technicians
• Mattresses returned in fully certified working order with free loans while

repairs are carried out to allow you continuity of service
• Servicing and/or repair offered in a hygiene controlled environment where

mattresses are PAT tested, static pressure leak tested and cycle tested
• Mattresses placed in an infection controlled ‘Cold Storage’ zone to control

cross contamination
• Mattresses completely cleaned and decontaminated using a specialist, cer-

tified decontamination system to approved standards
• Transparent and clear results reporting for peace of mind

In today’s ever-more pressurised care sector, on-demand mattress rental and maintenance services are playing a growing role in helping providers respond quickly to growing patient and resident intake. This allows you to maintain the highest possible standards of infection control practises in all areas.

Visit www.spearheadhealthcare.com