Healthcare facilities have a lot on their plates. Between doctors and nurses, patients and visitors, and equipment that needs to be cleaned and sterilized in-between, it can be difficult to keep up with all of the work that needs to be done for each day to run smoothly. This is especially true when it comes to laundry. The problem with many hospital laundries, however, is that they're time-consuming, expensive, and inefficient. If a healthcare facility opts to do laundry in-house, not only is there a lot of overhead associated with running it, it’s an added headache of making sure it’s done right.
The solution? Outsourcing your medical laundry services to an external company. A professional medical laundry service is able to handle the specialized needs of a hospital or clinic's linens, which require a high-level of care. You can choose from many different types of laundry solutions based on your budget and needs – from traditional hospital uniforms, bed linens, gowns, and scrubs. There are various choices available depending on how much cleaning power you want, as well as, how much money you're willing to spend. You might have debated it before, but there are plenty of reasons why outsourcing your medical linen laundry makes the most sense.
Here are our Top 5 Reasons:1. Stops you needing to purchase expensive, high-powered cleaning machinery and cleaning chemicals.
One of the biggest challenges hospitals face today is finding a way to provide the highest quality care while minimizing costs and improving efficiency. One area where hospitals and clinics try saving money is in medical laundry, specifically by doing their own in-house. However, this practice often ends up costing more money than it saves, in the long run.
Medical laundry requires the use of advanced equipment that hospitals don’t usually have access to, such as an industrial washing and sanitizing machine that can handle the weight and bulk of hospital bedding, linens, and gowns (just to name a few). As you might expect, this kind of machinery is expensive and will require continued maintenance in order for it to function properly and safely, as it will be used several times a day. Costs to repair or replace will likely be paid out-of-pocket, as will the price of necessary chemical refills. Don’t forget, you’ll also have to train your staff on how to use the equipment and track inventory of supplies.
Imagine the potential major setbacks if something were to break down during peak hours and there wasn’t anyone around to fix it immediately – catastrophe. With outsourcing, you greatly minimize the risk of these sorts of problems. That’s because professional healthcare laundry services already have all the required machinery and supplies on hand, so you’ve got one less cost to worry about. While outsourcing may seem like the more expensive option with hospitals having to pay a fixed monthly subscription rate, it’s something you can budget for within your means. Alternatively, opting to do laundry in-house means paying inflated costs upfront, expensing staff training, and unexpectedly high maintenance/upkeep fees throughout.
2. Doesn't take up space that could be used for other things.
If you're like most medical facilities, the last thing you want to do is purchase high-powered cleaning machinery that is not only expensive but takes up a lot of space. And for good reason! It’s already hard enough finding room for all the equipment that’s necessary for any given medical facility (think x-ray machines, examination tables and other diagnostic tools). So why add another piece of machinery that takes up valuable real estate in your hospital, that could instead be used for other, more crucial services for patient care and staff needs?
Think about all the extra space you could free up by outsourcing. Every inch in a hospital counts when it comes to storage space, so if you’re trying to store laundry supplies and equipment in one area of the healthcare facility, it may also be difficult for patients and staff alike to navigate around the area safely and efficiently. Often, there just simply isn’t enough capacity to handle the volume of laundry generated by a busy hospital. Outsourcing professional medical laundry services eliminate this problem by routinely collecting your spoiled linens and shipping them off elsewhere to be cleaned.
3. Laundry is being cleaned to the highest standards
Time and time again, studies have shown that patients are much more likely to get sick when their linens are not fresh. The reason is simple. Bacteria, viruses, fungus, and other pathogens thrive in the dirt, grime, and body fluids trapped in used linen. As a hospital or healthcare facility, you want to take every precaution you can to ensure that your patients are receiving high-quality healthcare that won’t lead to illness, which means your laundry services need to be top-notch quality as well.
When it comes to servicing medical linen, there are certain standards that should always be met in order to meet employees and patients’ expectations. Professional medical laundry services have certifications to ensure they are following the proper guidelines and regulations in place. These standards are as follows:
- Medical linens should always be returned in a clean and crisp condition that appeals to patients. No one wants to use linens that look or feel dirty.
- Patient gowns should be individually wrapped to avoid sanitation issues and contamination.
- All medical linens should be thoroughly cleaned and sanitized in-between to prevent the spread of germs from patient to patient.
- Only the most comfortable and softest materials should be used to create medical linens for patients and doctors.
Laundry should be cleaned to the highest standards by a company that is invested in your health, as well as the health and well-being of your staff and patients. Professional healthcare launders have dedicated equipment, facilities, and staff members who are trained to clean medical laundry with quality control in mind. This means that they also have years of experience using chemicals that are both effective and safe for patients and their caregivers (such as bleach and detergents), and they know how get even the toughest stains out. On the other hand, in-house options mean no external team to monitor your clothing and uniforms, so less oversight, leaving more room for error and laundry being improperly cleaned which could ultimately lead to infection outbreaks.
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4. Allows hospital staff to focus on what they do best: providing quality patient care and treatment.
As a hospital or healthcare facility, you have enough to think about without having to stress over the details of laundry. But the last thing that you need is for your staff or patients to experience poor quality linens or towels because of a bad process in-house. It’s not just about costs, but the cost of time. When you hire a medical laundry services company to do the ‘dirty work’ for you, then your employees can focus on what they need to do best – provide quality customer care and treatment – instead of washing and sorting laundered garments (their own and their patient’s). Let’s face it, the task is tedious and time consuming. The absolute last thing doctors and nurses want to (or should) do, is spend hours sorting through soiled linens in between tending to patients on a night shift.
Outsourcing a medical laundry service is not only better for convenience, but it puts the priority back in patient care. When staff is tired and overworked, mistakes happen, and not just with laundry. Asking staff to do laundry in-house is not only dangerous for patients but for employees as well; cleaning chemicals can be toxic if not handled properly. The process of hiring professional healthcare launderers takes the burden off your hospital staff by allowing them to focus on their jobs without forcibly trying to find the time in their already busy schedules for chores like laundry.
5. It's Convenient
For many, the thought of going out to buy your own work scrubs, is not something you relish doing. Hospitals know this and that's why some offer employee discounts on scrubs so that staff don't have to carry the financial burden themselves. When employees are responsible for their own scrubs, it’s necessary they keep track of how many they use each day and make sure they’re properly cleaned after each use so that they don’t become contaminated with germs from patients or others who have worn them previously. Outsourcing your medical laundry services saves employees the hassle of having to buy their own scrubs, and conveniently provides them with clean clothes on the daily that they don’t have to think twice about.
When employees have a freshly steamed work uniform supplied at the hospital every day without having to fret over laundry themselves, it helps lightens their load. And when your employees win, so do you. It’s important that healthcare facilities maintain a clean and polished appearance at all times – even when dealing with messier situations, in order to upkeep an image of professionalism and credibility with both staff members and patients alike. By outsourcing medical laundry services, you can also ensure that you never run out of patients’ gowns, fresh bedding, and clean towels. Inventory is managed by these services remarkably and that means you’ll never have to run out to buy linens in bulk at the last minute. Imagine telling a patient you didn’t do the laundry and have no more fresh linens to replace their soiled bedding until next week? What an embarrassing situation for your patient, yourself, and the hospital. Outsourcing is a necessary convenience for everyone.
Cleantex Healthcare and Hospital Uniform Solutions
As a leading medical laundry service provider, the professionals at Cleantex Healthcare and Hospital Uniform Solutions understand that keeping your linens clean is of utmost importance to provide support for both your employees and patients. We carry a wide variety of scrubs, lab and doctor coats, barrier and patient gowns, towels, environmental service supplies (like microfiber towels and mops) and bed linens. We also wash our garments using the highest Australian hygiene standard in line with AS/NZS 4146:0000 laundry practice. Our facilities have state-of-the-art equipment specially designed for medical linens so you never have to worry about your linens being improperly laundered or damaged during the process.
There is a lot to be gained by outsourcing your laundry needs – that’s why we want to take care of it for you. Afterall, it’s not just about keeping your linens smelling fresh, but being able to provide quality control (sanitary and safe), reduce costs, free up staff time, save space and minimize the stress that comes with the responsibility of medical laundry. Your patients and staff deserve the best, and using a professional medical laundry service ensure that's exactly what they'll get.
