Linen Loss Workshop Draws Nearly 100 Registrants

The first of a two-part virtual workshop was held on August 30-31st and nearly 100 registrants signed up to participate.  Pegged as a “deep dive” into linen loss, the session kicked off with ALM executive director, industry veteran, and longtime instructor for the Laundry & Linen College, Sarah Brobeck, leading a group discussion on the changing landscape in healthcare linen management, including an explanation of how linen departments and laundry operations are being impacted by a shift to outpatient services in hospitals. The program was developed in response to the many laundry operators had reached out to ALM for advice on the perplexing and unprecedented amount of linen loss occurring.

“What we do know for sure that it's (linen loss) is not going away. It’s going to change the way we do business and we’re going to have to understand as these changes continue to happen in healthcare, how this applies and how to effectively handle linen management."  Brobeck continued, “We’re going to talk about how you can offset it if we just shift our mind a little so you can get a handle on it now before it gets even worse.”

Through the group discussion, it was pointed out that at the onset of the pandemic, when laundry customer service reps were unable to access the hospital and continue the good work of educating clinicians and hospital staff on methods to reduce linen usage, practices and habits took hold, which had a severe impact on the volume of linen used, hoarded, and lost.

The workshop served to provide actionable advice and resources for how to holistically assess linen loss through a series of tutorials on conducting audits at the hospital, including trash audits, red bag audits, patient transfer audits, and clean room audits. Crothall Laundry Services shared their expertise through presentations provided by Suzy Ward, Regional Director of Client Services Southern California, Las Vegas and Arizona, Robyn Boudreau, Regional Director of Client Services Northern California, Elena O’Brien, Director of Client Services – Arizona, and Strategic Account Managers, Tiffany Stika and Martha Ceja.

When asked about the workshop, Egbert Dugall, VP of Customer Experience at Emerald Textiles said, “It touched on topics that are actually happening day to day.  Soil to clean concerns and accurate data reporting when it comes to adjusted patient days or discharge days.”

Registrants for the session also have access to an online toolkit which includes resources such as tips and how to documents on completing the audits, tracking forms, and a discussion board so they can continue discussions and networking with other linen managers.

The workshop series continues on September 20-21st with two days dedicated to linen utilization.  On the first day, Chuck Rossmiller, Senior Director of National Field Sales and Kevin Kunstman, Sales Program Manager of Medline Industries, along with Josh Slone,  CLLM, MHLM, who is the COO of Complete Textile Services, will address linen utilization topics such as working with committees, conducting inventories, policy making and revising, and setting and adjusting par levels along with identifying common linen misuse occurrences.  On day two, participants will be divided into teams to complete a QAPI project on reducing linen usage, facilitated by Detrik Scruggs, Assistant Quality Supervisor for Mayo Clinic. This portion of the training will again equip participants to walk away with the knowledge of the process and the tools to initiate and conduct measures to improve utilization at their hospitals.

Gain access to the toolkit and take part in the linen utilization and QAPI training   on September 20-21st.  Registrations are still being accepted.