The Great Laundry Debate: Why Home Laundering Facility-Provided Scrubs May Not Be as Safe as You Think

At the end of a long shift, facility-provided scrubs are often worn out of the facility or tossed into a gym bag and carried home. They may ride around in the back seat next to gym clothes, a reusable water bottle, and the everyday clutter of life outside the hospital.

Once home, those same scrubs are frequently washed with bath towels, socks, and whatever else happens to be in the laundry basket. The washing machine is set to warm, detergent is added, and everyone assumes the scrubs will come out clean and ready for another day of patient care. The intention is good. The question is whether a standard household washing machine can provide the level of decontamination required for healthcare textiles.

What Scrubs Pick Up During a Shift

Throughout the day, scrubs come into contact with patients, used bed linens, dirty equipment, workstations, and countless surfaces. Even when there is no visible soil, microorganisms may still be present on fabric. Studies have shown that healthcare attire can become contaminated during routine patient care. In one study, nurses’ scrubs acquired potentially harmful bacteria during more than 10% of their observed shifts (Anderson, et al. 2016). Another study found that 30% of scrub samples collected from healthcare workers were contaminated with pathogenic bacteria, particularly after caring for patients with wounds (Tanner et al., 2017).

Organisms that may be found on healthcare attire include Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus, Clostridioides difficile, coliform bacteria, and viral particles such as influenza and norovirus. Scrubs may look clean after a trip through the home washing machine, but appearances can be deceiving.

What the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Says

The CDC recommends laundering healthcare textiles in a controlled environment using appropriate temperatures, detergents, and disinfecting processes designed to reduce microbial contamination. In other words, effective laundering is about more than soap and water. It requires a validated process with consistent controls.

What Happens in a Healthcare Laundry 

When facility-provided scrubs are sent to a Hygienically Clean certified healthcare laundry, they undergo a process specifically designed for healthcare textiles.

HandCraft Linen Services provides:

  • Validated wash temperatures of at least 140o F
  • Agitation in a tunnel washer
  • Washing for at least 25½ minutes
  • EPA-registered disinfecting chemistry
  • Routine microbial testing
  • Quality assurance checks
  • Strict separation of clean and soiled textiles

This is quite different from a typical household washing machine. The goal is not simply to make scrubs look clean, but to process them to produce hygienically clean linen to support patient and employee safety.

Why This Matters

Scrubs are more than uniforms. They are part of the protective barrier between healthcare workers and patients. If microorganisms remain on fabric, they can be carried into patient rooms, break rooms, personal vehicles and even homes. What may seem like a simple laundry decision is actually part of the larger infection prevention process.

Final Thoughts

Home laundering may seem convenient, and it is often done with the best intentions. But in healthcare, details matter. Validated processes are trusted to sterilize instruments, disinfect rooms, and clean medical equipment. Facility-provided scrubs deserve the same level of attention. When they are laundered in a certified commercial healthcare laundry facility, there is greater confidence that they have been processed to the standards patients and healthcare workers deserve.

And that is a load worth doing right.

Contact Handcraft for more information

If you are looking for the right partner to help prevent linen loss and decrease your linen loss costs, you found us. We have the experience, industry-backed expertise, technology, and professionals to help you achieve your goals. Remember to look at our  HandCraft’s Linen Awareness Program – healthcare linen management strategies that save costs and improve service.

About the Author

Liz Barber, BSN, RN

Liz is a registered nurse with experience in clinical and non-clinical settings. She built her clinical expertise in Med-Surg and ICU. Beyond patient care, Liz has also served in Administrative Supervision, Quality Improvement, Employee Health, and Infection Prevention.

Sources for Reference:

Anderson, D. J., Chen, L. F., Weber, D. J., Moehring, R. W., Lewis, S. S., Triplett, P. F., Sexton, D. J., Kanamori, H., Babiker, A., Knelson, L. P., & Rutala, W. A. (2016). Transmission of multidrug-resistant bacteria to healthcare personnel gowns and gloves during routine patient care. Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, 37(10), 1179–1185. https://doi.org/10.1017/ice.2016.156

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2003). Guidelines for environmental infection control in health-care facilities. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. CDC Environmental Infection Control Guidelines

Tanner, W. D., Leecaster, M., Zhang, Y., Stratford, K. M., Mayer, J., Visnovsky, L., Alhmidi, H., Cadnum, J. L., Jencson, A. L., Koganti, S., & Donskey, C. J. (2017). Frequent contamination of healthcare worker scrubs. Open Forum Infectious Diseases, 4(Suppl 1), S187. https://doi.org/10.1093/ofid/ofx163.437

Textile Rental Services Association. (n.d.). Hygienically Clean Healthcare certification. TRSA. TRSA Hygienically Clean Healthcare Certification