Commercial or Hospital-Operated Laundry at Providence Hospital

The problem is to determine the best commercial or hospital-operated laundry service system for Providence Hospital which serves the community of Waco, Texas. In order to recommend the best laundry system, the author had the following objectives: (1) to find the total cost of laundry and linen service operations at Providence Hospital; (2) to find the total cost of commercial contracts from laundry and linen supply companies; (3) to find the most economical laundry system by cost comparison of the hospital laundry with commercial laundry quotations; and (4) to compare quality of clean linen processed, delivery service, normal and emergency, of the hospital laundry with commercial firms. The following directional guidance was used as criteria throughout this study: (1) the hospital laundry, if used, must operate as economically as commercial laundries; (2) cost for each pound of clean linen laundered must not exceed national averages for hospitals of similar size; (3) washing and finished laundry techniques of prospective alternatives must meet the standards of the American Hospital Association and Cornell University School of Hotel Administration; (4) infection control and handling of clean linen must meet the standards of the Providence Hospital Infection Committee; and (5) laundry service must be patient-oriented and available during emergencies and peak patient load conditions.