10 | Shared Hospital Services
comprehensive as that required by medical
professionals. Smoyer says Shared Hospital
Services is especially proud to hold accredi-
tation by HLAC says, “it guarantees that we
are providing hygienically clean material and
assurance to the hospitals that safety proce-
dures are being followed.”
Smoyer believes HLAC accreditation is
going to become increasingly important as
laundries attempt to distinguish their ser-
vices. Validation of that point was reflected
in a statement made by the leading associa-
tion of operating room nurses (or AORN)
who recently advocated HLAC standards be
adopted by all laundries serving healthcare.
Simply undergoing the audit by HLAC
was helpful says Smoyer, noting that it com-
pelled the laundry to fully evaluate their ser-
vices, their staff training and documentation
procedures in such a way as to help the or-
ganization become more cohesive and cog-
nizant of strengths and weaknesses. Smoyer
says the laundry also deploys another assess-
ment tool through an annual survey that is
distributed to every healthcare organization
they serve. The assessment not only reviews
