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Do hospitals seriously allow people to launder their own uniforms? That would never be allowed in the food industry.
by tuatoru 1y ago
Do hospitals seriously allow people to launder their own uniforms?
That would never be allowed in the food industry.
- iaaan 1y agoWhat do you mean? I've never heard of a restaurant that launders the employees' clothes for them.
- tacker2000 1y agoI would guess that most restaurants already have a laundry service for their tablecloths, etc… which would also take on the staff clothes? But i never worked in a restaurant, just guessing here.
- ender341341 1y agothey probably do aprons and stuff like that but even places with uniforms it's super rare that the restaurant would handle laundering clothing.
- Brian_K_White 1y agorestaurants have laundry service for kitchen pants, jackets, aprons, right along with all the towels, napkins, and tablecloths. They aren't the employees own clothes they got from walmart, they are provided by the laundry service like the towels.
- LadyCailin 1y agoI have worked at sit down dining and fast food, and neither places did my laundry for me. Aprons, sure, but not the rest of the clothes. The clothes which I had to buy in the first place.
- forgetfreeman 1y agoNow I'm wondering where you live because this is definitely not a thing in the overwhelming majority of restaurants in the continental US.
- Brian_K_White 1y agoA few different places in different cities in NY, Albany to Saratoga. Years ago though. Mostly just for the cooks not every dishwasher or waiter.
- closewith 1y agoIn most of the world, most healthcare workers launder their own scrubs and uniforms at home. I used to have a specific washing machine for it because I hated putting forgets uniforms with patient bodily fluids in my normal washing machine. Things like scrubs exchange machines and central laundries washing staff gear is rare even in hospitals in the developed world.
- nadir_ishiguro 1y agoI was a bit surprised by that when I first learned that from a healthcare worker, but it's true. I think this should be taken care of by the employer.
- forgetfreeman 1y agoSo should sane work hours and good pay but here we are.
- OJFord 1y agoIf you mean from the perspective of having to do it/pay for it, you can claim I think it's £6/week for it in the UK if you don't have the option of getting it done at work (but hospitals in general do I believe).
- dylan604 1y agoAfter watching The Pitt, they have a mini-plot line around the scrubs exchange machine like it's a normal thing. It was the first I had ever seen one, but I don't work in the medical industry. It felt like something used just to allow for the script to work.
- lotsofpulp 1y agoAfter seeing that machine, the only way I could make sense of that machine being used is a corrupt hospital exec buying it from their cousin’s company or something.
- 1y ago
- zabzonk 1y agoI don't know about today, but when I worked in microbiology in the 70s & 80s all our lab coats and similar clothing were washed in central facilities - in most hospitals, the central laundry was (and still is) one of the biggest facilities in the hospital.
- danesparza 1y agoYes, but does the central laundry wash all nurse and med tech uniforms? I would be genuinely surprised if the answer was "yes". I'm willing to bet they launder bed linens almost exclusively. (And perhaps the food service uniforms) :-)
- zabzonk 1y agoAs I said, I don't know what the exact situation is today, but they certainly did. Would you want us to be sitting on a bus, contaminated with pathogens?
- danesparza 1y agoI ask because my wife was a hospital nurse for 5 years (including during the beginning and peak of Covid) at a large hospital in the US. The hospital definitely did not wash their uniforms.
- PaulDavisThe1st 1y agoNor firefighting PPE.
- c12 1y agoYes. When I started working in hospitals it wasn't the case. We had an onsite laundry facility and tailor. You would obtain your uniform from the tailors, tailor made to fit, they would also repair any damaged uniform. You would place worn uniform in a bag labeled with your name and drop if off at the laundry to collect the next day. Then privatisation came, first they shut down the tailors and you were expected to both purchase your uniform and pay for alterations and repairs (costs you could claim back as a tax rebate if you knew how, how not being advertised.) Then they privatised the laundry, shutting down the one on site and shifting everything to a central location, by everything I mean just the bedding, you were now expected to wash your uniform at home. The only exception I am aware of is Surgical scrubs, those were provided in sterile wraps and were to be returned to a certain laundry bin for cleaning. You're right about the food industry, when I worked in kitchens that days uniform was provided, freshly cleaned and returned for laundering at the end of my shift.
- danesparza 1y ago"Allow" is a funny word. "Require" might be more appropriate. And I agree - the medical industry (specifically in the United States) cares more about profit than care. It's nuts.
- OJFord 1y agoIn the UK I believe you're not supposed to, other than briefly during covid, but it's (still) common. Also though, you think people buying & wearing their own Figs scrubs would get them back if they put them in the hospital laundry service? And what about non-scrubs for that matter?
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]