Healthcare Laundry Accreditation Council (HLAC) Plant Accreditation Process
Background The document Accreditation Standards for Processing Reusable Textiles for Usein Healthcare Facilities establishes the criteria for a laundry plant to become accredited by the Healthcare Laundry Accreditation Council (HLAC). The HLAC is responsible for establishing and maintaining the Accreditation Standards, facilitating plant inspections, and accrediting those plants that pass inspection.
The Inspection Process Upon our receipt of your application (the application form is on the web site as a pdf file) and deposit we will schedule a mutually agreeable inspection date between you and our inspector. This will usually be a month or more into the future. We will send you pre-inspection information, including a list of documents the inspector will want to see on the inspection day. The balance of the inspection fee is due before the inspection takes place.
The inspection itself will take no more than one day, and is in two parts: a physical walk-through of the entire plant, and conference time in a quiet room for review of documents. Your key managers will need to be available that day to answer questions the inspector may have.
The inspector will use a checklist that closely follows the Accreditation Standards for Processing Reusable Textiles for Usein Healthcare Facilities published on our web site. Each item is essentially a statement of fact. The inspector will mark “yes,” “no,” or “not applicable,” and add remarks as necessary. When a requirement is for accreditation only, the term used is “shall.” When a requirement is a Federal mandate, the term used is “must,” and the item is printed in bold.
At the end of the inspection, the inspector will brief the laundry managers, highlighting both good aspects of the operation, and those items that require improvement. The inspector will not provide a grade, and will not approve or disapprove accreditation on the inspection day.
When the inspector returns home he or she forwards a complete report to the HLAC Inspection Committee, which scores the report. These are the scoring requirements for accreditation:
90% of all inspection statements are either “yes” or “not applicable” (i.e. 10% or fewer are “no.”
100% of all must statements are “yes.” “Must” statements are printed in bold in the checklist. Any discrepancies to “must” statements have to be corrected in order to become accredited.
HLAC will send a formal letter to the plant contact person with the results of the inspection.
Possible Outcomes
Approval- The plant has fewer than 10% “no” statements overall, and all must statements are marked “yes.” The plant will be accredited.
Provisional approval. The plant has more than 10% “no” statements, and/or one or more must statements have been marked “no.” The plant will not be accredited yet. The total “no” statements have to be reduced below 10%, and all must statements have to be corrected.
Correction Process
The plant will have up to 45 days from the date of the HLAC inspection letter to correct its discrepancies. It will then submit documentation of these corrections to the HLAC Inspection Committee. This process may include a telephone conference to provide more details, and, at the discretion of the committee, may include a follow-up inspection. Upon acceptance of the corrections, provisional approval will be changed to approval.
If the plant fails to demonstrate that it has corrected its discrepancies within 45 days, the provisional approval will become “disapproved.” The plant will require another physical inspection to become qualified. This next inspection will not be scheduled sooner than 6 months after the initial inspection.
Appeals Process
In the event that the laundry operator feels that either the inspection or the scoring process has been unfair in any way, HLAC will provide an appeals process that brings the concern to members of the HLAC Board of Directors who have not participated in the earlier decisions.
