Healthcare Market
Healthcare is a dynamic segment of the marketplace and potentially will benefit the most from services provided by the textile rental industry. As hospitals experience the pressure to cut costs, the textile rental industry solves the problem by providing hygienically clean linen at affordable prices. Currently, 35% of hospitals use these services.
The healthcare market includes hospitals, medical and dental offices, outpatient surgical, acute and subacute care facilities, public health clinics, nursing homes, assisted-living facilities, and home care.
According to the American Hospital Association, the U.S. healthcare market comprises 6,600 hospitals that operate 1.16 million beds; 16,600 nursing homes serving 1.5 million residents; 65,000 assisted-living facilities with 1 million residents; and 3,000 adult daycare centers.
The healthcare industry employs more than 10 million people, including 2 million nurses, 650,000 doctors and 150,000 dentists. By 2005, more than 2 million new jobs will be created.
Today, more hospital and healthcare facility administrators are outsourcing linen and laundry services to textile
rental companies because they find that on-premise laundries (OPLs) are not cost-effective to operate. These administrators are also making an environmentally safe decision by using linens (e.g. gowns, towels, and incontinent care products) that are reusable, as opposed to disposable products.