Ecolab Tackles Sticky Issue for I&I Laundry

Medical adhesive is a necessary but sticky—and often costly—issue for healthcare facilities. While the adhesives help things like heart monitors pads stick to patients, the residue is often tough to remove from fabric, even after laundering. It pushes costs up for healthcare facilities and laundries when they are forced to replace stained sheets and gowns. I&I provider Ecolab is touting new solution.

The company's Restora program for healthcare laundry uses a patent-pending formula to remove medical adhesives from linen during the wash process. With the Restora program, healthcare laundries can reclaim linen that would have previously been discarded due to adhesive stains, helping to extend linen life and reduce replacement costs, according to the I&I company.

Billed as a “first-of-its-kind solution in commercial laundry,” Restora uses a proprietary blend of solvents and surfactants to dissolve medical adhesives, including heart monitor pads, and the residue they leave behind. The formula is tough on adhesives but gentle on linen, so it will not harm specialized healthcare fabric, and it works within a normal wash process, according to Ecolab.

Tests show that the Restora program can help healthcare laundries reclaim up to 99% of adhesive-stained linen.

“Medical adhesive stains are difficult to remove and present one of the costliest challenges for healthcare laundries,” said Michael Johannsen, senior vice president of Global Textile Care at Ecolab. “We developed the Restora program to help healthcare laundries remove adhesives and prevent stains which lead to linen reprocessing and replacement.”