MDAHS Turns 50

Metropolitan Detroit Area Hospital Services (MDAHS) began operations in the spring of 1972. As a newly formed cooperative laundry, its sole purpose was to provide linen service to its four founding members: Pontiac General Hospital, St. Joseph Mercy Hospital (Ann Arbor), Sidney A. Sumby Memorial Hospital (River Rouge), and Wyandotte General Hospital. 

The original facility was located on 4.7 acres at 4645 Oakman in Detroit, Michigan. The facility was designed to process 8 million pounds of laundry annually, supporting a $500,000 annual payroll and 70 employees. The total cost of the facility was $2.3 million, which included the land, building, utilities, equipment, inventory, consulting fees and startup expenses. Over the years, the facility ultimately processed 17 million pounds of linen annually over two shifts. During their tenure on Oakman Boulevard, 73% of employees were residents in the City of Detroit.

Fast forward 50 years, MDAHS has relocated to the New Center area of Detroit, where they have a $48 million state-of-the-art facility. Currently processing 32 million pounds annually for Henry Ford Health System, Michigan Medicine and Trinity Health, with a plant capacity capable of expansion to 80 million pounds per year.

Since opening June 1, 2020, the facility has been running two shifts over a five-day work week. At 115,000-square feet, it is one of the largest shared medical laundry facilities in the country and more than double the size of the previous laundry plant. The facility employs about 150 workers.

With so much change since their doors opened in 1972, including a new, larger building, increased job opportunities for people in the city and the surrounding Metro Detroit area, to serving new health systems, the one thing that has stayed the same is MDAHS's commitment to providing quality linen to healthcare providers.