Content about Towel

ROANOKE, Va. — It seems that making the required adjustments in your laundry operation is a never-ending process. We must consider a number of variables as we make periodic adjustments to our operations. With this in mind, I have decided to discuss—over the course of the next several months—the factors and opportunities available to every manager in fine-tuning their operation.

First, let’s take a look at the soil-sort department. This area varies by laundry, and the quality of the process in this area can make a major impact on the overall operation. I guess the first decision to be made is whether we are going to sort the soiled linen or not.

It used to be a popular idea, both in Canada and the United States, to sort healthcare linen after it had been washed and decontaminated. I know of a number of laundries in both countries that have abandoned that idea in an effort to reduce chemical, labor and linen-replacement costs.

The purpose of sorting soiled linen is to remove trash and other foreign material before the linen is washed, and to facilitate the proper cleaning and handling of the linen through the laundry.

The larger the laundry, the greater the number of sorting classifications. Smaller laundries may mix all large dry items together, while large laundries will sort thermal blankets, bath blankets, knitted contour sheets and incontinent pads into separate classifications.

The more detailed the sort, the more the wash formula and the drying times can be customized for each individual product. (The ability to fine-tune a dryer formula will be considered in a future column.)

Ideally, linen should be handled as few as times as possible as it moves through the laundry. A thorough soil-sort process eliminates the need to sort the product after it has been washed and conditioned or dried.

For example, we use a soil-sort classification just for our white hospital bath towels. This allows the operator on the small-piece folder in the production area to quickly process the items without having to handle unrelated items. Once processed, the items are placed in stacks of 10 on a conveyor belt that moves through an automatic tie machine and then delivers the product to the cart make-up area.

Bath towels are only touched three times before they are ready to be packed for orders: during the soil-sort process, as they are fed into the small-piece folder and, finally, as they are put on the conveyor. This economy of effort leads to a highly efficient and effective laundry.

In reviewing the soil-sort area of the laundry, I will normally check the established classifications to determine if they still meet the needs of the laundry. I check to see how many times each must be handled before the product is ready to be placed in carts for delivery. This survey tells me if I need to add or subtract soil-sort classifications.

I will also review what percentage of my overall work volume is represented by each classification. I want to make sure that high-volume items receive the greatest amount of attention. I also use this information to make sure that all high-volume items are placed in appropriate positions along the soil-sort platform. Efficiency can be improved when high-volume items are placed in the best positions.

It is important to remember that the mix in your laundry will change over time. Your process requires periodic review to ensure that the underlying mix has not changed.

Review and re-evaluate production standards for this area during this fine-tuning process. Changes made in the number of classifications and the placement of each in the soil-sort area will impact an employee’s productivity. Being able to measure the impact of the changes and validate that you have improved your operation is a critical component in being a good manager.

Finally, assess the quality of your soil-sort process. How many items are showing up in the wrong category? A bath towel accidentally sorted into a load of white sheets will need to either be rewashed or gathered, dried and then routed to the appropriate finish area. The most economical way to process linen is to do it right the first time. Tracking the amount of linen that is incorrectly sorted can give you an ongoing measure of your soil-sort area’s effectiveness.

HEALTHCARE LAUNDRY: SCOTT BEATON, KAISER PERMANENTE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

It has been my experience that most linen users do not fully comprehend the costs involved in linen replacement and laundry processing. Products are misused, abused, given to patients and in some cases thrown away.

It is vital to continually conduct departmental surveys with the help of the linen management team and laundry/linen vendors to illustrate to end-users the annual costs of linen abuse and misuse.

It is during these types of audits that a number of poor linen practices can be discovered and observed, such as:

• Housekeepers using good-quality washcloths as rags
• Housekeepers using towels as liners underneath buckets on their carts
• Nursing and staff using bath towels and other linen products to clean up spills
• Unacceptable linen (stained/torn) being placed in soiled-linen hampers or thrown into the garbage
• Linen with bodily fluids/blood being “red bagged” and sent out with infectious waste
• Finding linen in visitor lounges
• Hoarding of linen in storage closets
• Too much linen being taken into patient rooms as a matter of convenience
• Bath towels being used as liners beneath plants
• Thermal blankets being used to cover air conditioning units and the areas under windowsills to trap cold air

To minimize these occurrences, help the end-users develop a facility-wide action plan.

Initiate an intensive public relations and linen awareness program for all staff. It should be part of new-employee orientation as well as continuing education.

Utilize the assistance of both the linen management team and linen/laundry vendors. Help them to initiate “Linen Awareness Days,” which have been proven effective in increasing end-users’ knowledge. Typically, a “manned” exhibit is set up outside the cafeteria, and employees participate in contests that touch on issues concerning laundry/linen costs, misuse, and abuse.

COMMERCIAL LAUNDRY: TOM GILDRED, EMERALD TEXTILES, SAN DIEGO, CALIF.

The costs associated with linen abuse can be surprisingly high, and while the decision makers in our customer organizations are often aware of those costs, sometimes the hospital staff benefits from awareness and education in this area. Communication, training and a strong partnership are the keys to limiting unnecessary expenses associated with damaged linen.

First, it’s important to discover, or uncover, the issues. One way to do this is through regular floor tours with the hospital team, during which improper handling is identified and documented. Hospital tape applied to sheets is a primary offense. This practice can ruin as many as 10 sheets that follow one that has gone through the ironers.

Substantial savings can be realized through simple suggestions such as using sheets or bath blankets that have been taken out of service as rags to pick up spills, clean up paint and grease, or wax floors. It also might be a good opportunity to offer the benefits of a microfiber program, which is not only green and sustainable but also more effective for the hospital housekeeping team.

Sharing findings with the nursing staff and end-users on a regular basis should have the largest impact on cost control. One can gain further support by offering solutions to hospital administration, which may lead to a stronger partnership in the long run. Over time, cultural changes promoting sustainability and cost containment should have a significant impact on reducing linen abuse.

Another important step is regularly monitoring internal laundry facility processes and quality control programs to ensure that best practices are employed, as well as to eliminate the possibility of processing becoming a factor in damaged linens. Documenting those processes and programs to provide customers with evidence of quality control is another good step to ensure communication and solid partnership.

Sometimes a complaint comes in that “The laundry is ruining my linen.” The majority of linen replacement is due to linen damage and abuse occurring at customers’ facilities. Processors are well served to implement and adhere to a strong quality assurance program that demonstrates their commitment to customers. When issues arise at the facility level, it’s important to make it a policy to acknowledge and address problems in a timely manner and to communicate with the customer about the resolution as quickly as possible.

Building an honest, communicative partnership with customers can aid in working together to provide and maintain high-quality linen and greater patient satisfaction.

LINEN SUPPLY: STEPHEN MARCQ, GENERAL LINEN SERVICE, SOMERSWORTH, N.H.

The best time to talk to your customers about the costs of linen abuse is right now! Really, it starts in the sales process for new customers, and by ensuring that linen conservation requirements are introduced correctly at a new-account installation.

It’s harder to break a customer of a bad habit than it is to start good ones. By helping your customer take better care of your items while they are in his possession, you lower your own linen replacement and processing costs, which allows your (his) pricing to remain lower longer. It truly is a win-win for both sides, and a great way to partner with customers for mutual benefit.

Whether it’s a new or existing customer, start by ensuring there are enough soil containers to ensure the customer can pre-sort linen to your requirements. Typically, storing soiled garments, kitchen towels, aprons, tablecloths and napkins in their own separate containers will help prevent damage from improper storage.

Make sure that soil bags are stored in a dry, secure area in between pickups. Provide laminated bilingual signage with a picture of the item over each bag, and install them. Make sure that items used are appropriate for their intended use. Most of us wouldn’t want to rent a bath towel to an auto detailing shop, for example, but perhaps a #2 grade is appropriate for that application. Also, ensure that items in service are being used for their intended purpose, i.e. don’t allow napkins or washcloths to be used for cleaning tasks.

If your system allows, identify abusers through your soil room, and single them out for special attention and increased management visits. At scheduled account visits, include linen conservation evaluation and discussion as part of your regular talking points. Sometimes, selling or giving away bags of rags for heavy cleaning tasks is a great solution.

Remember, too, that the employee who sees your customer most often is your route service representative (RSR). Leverage that relationship. Ensure your RSR maintains the conservation initiatives you have in place and talks to his contact about results and opportunities often.

Make sure that your conservation message is reaching the right ears. The people using the product are the usual targets for the message, but make sure the people paying the bills are in the loop, too. If you reach both end-users and payers, you will have covered all your bases and helped set yourself up for the best possible outcome.

Billing for damaged items is a last resort that can be viewed as problematic. If you’ve laid the proper groundwork and gained the understanding and support from the customer during the process, you can and should expect to be paid for misused or damaged rental product. The alternative to not billing when appropriate is to simply include the cost of damage in every customer’s pricing, which essentially penalizes the good customers who have to pay some of the freight for the abusive ones.

Lastly, consider negotiating and agreeing on some form of recurring damage billing for abusers who can’t or won’t change their operation, to help avoid billing fluctuations and associated pain.

Check back tomorrow for Part 2!

PHILADELPHIA — A&B Wiper Supply, Philadelphia, and Nation/Ruskin Inc., Montgomeryville, Pa., have merged, the companies announced.

“The merger is mutually beneficial,” says Hal Kanefsky, CEO of A&B Wiper Supply, which stocks an inventory of discount home and institutional terry towels, as well as a full range of microfiber products and professional wiping cloths. “Nation/Ruskin’s reputation for high standards in all aspects of customer service is a natural fit.”

Nation/Ruskin manufactures and distributes a complete line of paint sundries and house ware cleaning products under the EZ ONE® brand and private label brands for many retailers.

It will continue to operate as a separate entity and under the same dedicated management team headed by President Ray Adolf.

ROANOKE, Va. — Providing an OR towel that has little lint or is lint-free is a universal challenge for all laundry facilities that supply reusable OR towels to a healthcare facility. You can take some key steps to ensure that the product coming out of processing has a minimum amount of lint.

The first is to make sure that you purchase a high-quality reusable OR towel. The quality of the weave and the fiber used in product construction has a direct bearing on the amount of lint that will be generated in processing. As a general rule, the lower the cost of the OR towel, the greater the amount of lint.

Recently, several linen companies have experienced problems with previously reliable sources, as poor-quality cotton has made its way into the production pipeline. Carefully research your options and insist on test-washing any OR towels before committing your business to a particular vendor. This is one item for which you are better off committing all your business to one vendor based on its ability to consistently provide a high-quality product.

Constant vigilance for potential product problems has become a necessary part of laundry management. Product consistency will make, not break, your reputation with your customers.

Next, make sure that reusable OR towels are processed separately from disposable (single-use) towels. Most disposable OR towels are blue in color and of a lower quality than reusable OR towels. In addition, disposable OR towels are sterilized by irradiation, which has a detrimental effect on the cotton fiber.

Because of these two factors, the amount of lint generated by disposable OR towels when washed in the laundry will be much higher than that generated by reusable OR towels. It is therefore recommended that, during the soil-sort process, these towels be sorted into a separate batch. Disposable OR towels can easily be sold to a number of industries once they are properly cleaned.

You must take care during soil sorting to ensure that no foreign objects are placed in the load with the reusable OR towels. It is normal to find pieces of gauze in the bags containing reusable OR towels. These pieces will disintegrate into white pieces of lint during processing. Removing these foreign bodies will eliminate the problem.

I recommend sorting the OR towels twice to make sure that all foreign items are removed. During the initial high-speed sort, some items normally get past the sorters who are trying hard to make production numbers. Sending the OR towels past them a second time will help them catch what they missed the first time around.

I recommend adding one or two green poly-cotton sheets to each wash load of green OR towels. Ray Pierson, one of my supervisors who used to work for National Linen, made this recommendation based on his experience there. I had my doubts at first, but decided to give it a try.

We always fully dry our OR towels before inspecting them by hand and folding them. The process of ironing a damp OR towel will cause fibers to stretch and create thermal shock, which will result in additional linting next time. We have found that the green sheets act like lint magnets when washed and dried with a load of OR towels, greatly reducing if not eliminating the lint.

We inspect each OR towel to ensure the quality of the products that are delivered to our customers. This process greatly reduces inventory management issues. If the OR towels are not inspected, then facilities will order more than they really need. Through inspection, the orders accurately reflect what they really need. Having the responsibility for inspecting OR towels done by the surgical pack room simplifies the allocation between OR packs and loose towels.

The reusable surgical linen business requires a higher quality standard than general hospital linen but, if priced appropriately, can be a great addition to your volume and your bottom line.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — To address emerging confusion due to the disposable wiper industry’s most recent attack on the hygiene of clean shop towels, Textile Rental Services Association of America (TRSA) member companies are explaining to users of these laundered products the frivolity of claims that these goods contain trace amounts of ingestible metals.

TRSA has made the case against the validity of the analysis publicized July 11 that updates findings from 2003 for the International Nonwovens & Disposables Association (INDA).

In their new documentation, researchers for Gradient Corp., which also conducted the 2003 INDA study, noted they examined only 10 towels to reach their conclusions. They produced no evidence of any harm from use of these items, insinuating that metals could migrate from towels to users’ hands but offering no evidence that any such transfer occurs.

The analysis does not prove the presence of metals in washed shop towels, TRSA notes, and if any were present, they could not escape because laundering would bind them to towel fibers.

“The findings assume that workers wipe their lips with a laundered shop towel twice a day,” observes TRSA President Joseph Ricci. “Such a baseless assumption serves no purpose other than to strike fear and create doubt.”

Even the researchers noted their lack of methodology for evaluating exposure to metals from towels.

“The hygienic and economic benefits of using laundered goods have long been realized by manufacturing and service industries but have rarely been publicized,” Ricci says. “Marketers of disposables cannot deliver these same attributes so they are determined to spend whatever money is necessary to discredit reusables instead.”

To be held at 3:00 p.m. Rick Pollock, a top officer of the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE), will present “How Effective Fleet Safety Builds Your Bottom Line.” He'll provide insight into emerging legal and voluntary standards for conscientious driving and ergonomically conscious delivery practices. Rick founded the Direct Delivery Leadership Council, which identifies, establishes and promotes best practices for improving and integrating safety leadership, productivity and profitability for the direct delivery and service industries.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — No indication has surfaced of when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will end its decades of deliberation on whether to perpetuate the exemption for reusable shop towels from regulation as solid or hazardous waste, according to the Textile Rental Services Association (TRSA).

Disposable products do not receive this exemption and this distinction is seen as providing a critical cost-saving market advantage to reusables. Shop-towel-rental sales are worth about $1 billion annually to the rental laundry industry, TRSA says.

Hospitals, hotels, offices, restaurants and industrial customers are among the many businesses that rely on dust control products — floor mats, wet/dry mops, and other items — to minimize building maintenance while improving appearance and productivity.

And servicing these dust control products has become an important part of business for many industrial laundry companies and linen supply plants.

BIRTH OF A MARKET

“My budget has been cut, and I’ve got to find ways to keep my costs down. Can you suggest operational changes I can make to cut or at least control costs without having to purchase anything or cause a major upheaval in my laundry?”

Long-Term Care Laundering: Albert J. Raymond, Healthcare Services Group, Bensalem, Pa.

CHICAGO — People are more likely to reuse hotel towels if they know other guests are doing it, too, according a new study published in this month’s Journal of Consumer Research.

In order for my customers to be responsible for linens and garments, I suppose they need to be instructed or reminded about abuse. What steps can my operation take to train them and minimize these occurrences? Is it possible that we’re abusing the linen during processing and/or distribution?

My hotel has upgraded its guest-room linens and bedding package, as well as its restaurant linens. It’s made a sizable investment, so the pressure’s on to clean, handle and store these goods carefully for the longest useful life possible. What advice can you give me?