Blueys vs reusable linens: How this ICU saved half a tonne of waste
They are a staple in hospital wards, but can they be laundered and re-used without compromising patient care?
Replacing single-use ‘blueys’ with reusable cotton pads in an ICU saved almost 500kg of waste in a year without any adverse impacts on patients, a Victorian study has found.
An estimated 75 million blueys, made of layered tissue paper with a blue plastic back, are used in Australia each year to deal with incontinence, wound dressing changes and more, generating almost 2000 tonnes of waste.
So a 12-bed ICU at Sunshine Hospital in western Melbourne trialled replacing blueys with reusable, launderable cloth with a similar absorbency of 175mL.
Armed with data on over 2110 patients, researchers assessed whether introducing the non-disposable version affected the occurrence of pressure injuries.
