Costs, including materials and labor, as well as space issues, have made the outsourcing of hospital laundry operations an increasingly attractive option in today’s fiscal environment. 
 
But the logic of outsourcing was similarly valid—if less well known—in the late 1950s when a trio of planners representing St. Francis General Hospital and Rehabilitation Center, Pittsburgh, was mulling over how they should move forward with the construction of a new south wing. 
 
At issue was whether or not to include a modernization of the hospital’s laundry facility in the project.
 
“The problem was: ...