Is your healthcare facility using the right medical linen services? If there are persistent problems with your hospital linen services, now is an excellent time to review your partnerships and processes.
In this guide, we’ll look at the best practices in modern linen management. We’ll also provide proactive steps you can take to ensure your facility is managing its linens optimally.
High-Quality Products for Staff and Patient Comfort
A medical facility should provide high-quality scrubs, lab coats, patient gowns, and other garments. A 2020 study found that comfort can protect patients from unnecessary physical, mental, and emotional distress. Your linens should improve patient and staff experiences.
For example, a Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey in Connecticut found impressive results after switching from standard patient gowns/robes to high-quality plush gowns/robes. Before introducing the new garments, just 48% of patients had a “favorable to very favorable” view of their comfort. Afterward, this number rose to 91%.
Tips for improving patient and staff linen comfort:
- Provide garments from top manufacturers
- Focus on the material and fit, not just the garment type
- Allow staff to opt for a variety of scrub and lab coat styles
- In patient rooms, use premium bed and bath linens
- Offer patients soft, plush robes and gowns
What do your patients and staff members say about the quality of your current linens? Do they express satisfaction with the fit and durability? Pay close attention to complaints like stiffness, poor fits, fraying seams, missing ties, or a lack of available garments in inventory.
Consider conducting a patient/employee survey to get honest feedback on this issue. Staff members might be more comfortable expressing their concerns in a confidential, anonymous survey.
To see an example of the type of high-quality garments that typically receive the highest ratings, take a look at the Comfort Care® product line. A case study showed a fivefold increase in healthcare facility patient satisfaction, skyrocketing from 20% to 100% satisfaction from using this line of garments.
Benefits of a Customer Advocate for Linen Services
Dedicated point of contact
You deserve a dedicated point of contact who is a customer-focused advocate for your company’s needs. We call that a Customer Advocate. ImageFIRST offers access to your service team through a downloadable app for your smartphone. You’ll always reach a Customer Advocate who makes your needs a priority.
Same-day linen rescue services
Consider what happens when you have a sudden and urgent need for medical linens. Imagine a surge in patient intakes requiring an immediate increase in patient and staff garments.
Does your current linen provider have someone you can contact right away? Do they offer fast same-day linen services? You need to resolve the urgent issue right away, in addition to maintaining your same level of reliable day-to-day service.
On-site inventory management services
When you have on-site inventory management services with ImageFIRST, your Customer Advocate is always working proactively to keep your inventory levels stable. Plus, it frees up your staff from using their valuable time for linen handling and management and more time focusing on what matters most: caring for their patients.
A fully managed linen program does all of this and more. After conducting a needs analysis at the start of the program, you’ll establish pricing and scheduling. A dedicated Customer Advocate helps oversee your program and supports your facility’s linen inventory needs. Adjustments can be made over time to adapt the program as needed to be fully customized and stress-free.
Infection Prevention Processes for Medical Linen Services
For healthcare facilities, preserving public health and safety is a top priority. Agencies like The Joint Commission, the CDC, OSHA, and the HLAC set high standards for medical linen handling and cleaning.
Ensure someone in your organization oversees infection prevention and quality assurance or partner with an outside linen provider with medical linens experience. Your linen partner should follow the latest sanitation procedures and should operate an HLAC-accredited facility.
Tips for preventing infection:
- Ensure all your laundering processes meet or exceed OSHA, CDC, and HLAC standards and comply with The Joint Commission requirements.
- Ask your linen partner about Triple BioShield Protection®, which kills 99.999% of common pathogens.
- Arrange for plastic wrappings to prevent cross-contamination and keep your garments safe from transported bacteria.
- Determine how your linen partner ensures safe handling and whether they use technology like RFID tagging and electronic monitoring.
Inventory Control and Cost Efficiency
Look closely at the range of services available from your linen partner. Is it enough to meet your ongoing needs? Do they provide solutions to improve your cost management and inventory management?
Healthcare budgets and timelines can be tight, so you deserve full clarity into your linen management processes. Perhaps it’s time to take a fresh look at the full scope of your linen inventory needs and seek innovative ways to optimize the cycle. If you need a higher level of service, you’ll find it with ImageFIRST.
Inventory based on your facility’s needs
Maintain the ideal levels of inventory for all linens and garments based on your budget, staff size, schedules, and other inventory details. Never run out of linens and garments when your staff needs them most.
Inventory management
Flexible and customized inventory management that adjusts to stay optimized over time. Lighter patient loads? We’re your inventory management partner so you have what you need when you need it.
Transparent billing
No surprises on your bills. Your billing will be clear with established pricing and no hidden fees.
Fair pricing
ImageFIRST offers fair pricing to get the most out of your budget.
Staff accountability
Keep your staff accountable and track your items with RFID chips in every piece of apparel.
VAULTSystemTM benefits
The VAULTSystemTM is a secure cabinet that tracks, stores, and dispenses your linens as you need them. It’s easy to use and we manage the inventory to meet your needs.
Your Partner in Optimized Single-Source Medical Linen Services
Patient satisfaction is a top priority for us, as is your satisfaction. You’re not just our customer, but also our partner in effective linen management. We offer fair pricing and remarkable results.
We’re proud to have a 97% customer retention rate, which is among the highest in the industry. We also use an industry-leading 5-point product quality system to help you stay compliant with guidelines from the leading health and safety organizations.
Plus, as your single-source linen partner, we provide an all-in-one linen and laundry solution to take the stress out of managing your medical garments. We’ll ensure you always get the most out of your fully managed hospital linen services.
To learn more, please contact us so we can discuss your optimal program needs.