Coming in November – Growing Nonacute Healthcare Textiles

Posted October 21, 2022 at 1:12 pm




As laundry operators – especially those who aren’t healthcare specialists – emerge from the pandemic, many are diversifying into nonacute textile services, including the flatwork and garments from clinics and long-term care centers, as a hedge against future crises similar to COVID-19. This shift toward the processing of nonacute medical textiles is the focus of a cover article in November’s Textile Services.

“I think diversification in your ability to serve is going to be very important in these post-COVID years,” said Ian Bigelow, a longtime operator with Crothall, who now works as a consultant. He said COVID-19 is likely to be “the tip of the iceberg,” and that similar pandemics are likely, due in part to climate change fueled excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Bigelow cites the recent emergence of monkeypox as a hint of a future that could include more economic disruptions similar to the COVID restrictions that led to the closures of many businesses.

However, laundry owner/operators like Angie Ringling of Spin Linen, Omaha, NE, didn’t need fear of a future crisis to boost her presence in the outpatient-care market. For Ringling it’s simply a “great space” that operates independently from her food-and-beverage (F&B) flatwork linen business. As it happens, restaurants in her area also have recovered briskly from pandemic restrictions. “You know, the F&B side is really blowing up too,” she said, noting that not all competitors provide the level of service and products that restaurateurs expect. “We’ve got a lot more table linen these days.” Banquet business is spiking too. “We find the events are just still rolling in post-COVID. I was expecting to see a slowdown by now and we have not – not even close.” As for nonacute healthcare, Ringling has selectively pursued bulk product-line “verticals” or niche markets, such as clinic or surgicenter towels and sheets provided on a rental basis that she can cost-effectively process. “I absolutely love that vertical,” she said, speaking of the clinic business. “That is by far our most profitable vertical, and we have seemed to have gotten that dialed in to the point where we don’t have a lot more opportunities in our market. So we’re actually having to look at expanding.”

Another operator, John Shoemaker, senior vice president of General Linen & Uniform Service, Detroit, credits shifts in insurance coverage with fueling a boom in outpatient-medical care that his company is ready to service with flatwork as well as scrubs, towels and more. “General Linen’s primary focus for growth is outpatient medical (clinics, etc.),” Shoemaker said. “With the changes in the insurance world, these types of establishments are popping up almost like Blockbuster and Starbucks were a few decades ago – you can barely go a few blocks without seeing one.”

Part of what’s made clinics so attractive for laundry operators is the fact that many outpatient-care providers have upped the quality of the textile products that they provide to patients, in order to get better scores in Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) surveys sponsored by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. “They’re really concerned about those HCAHPS cap scores and the patient-perception stuff,” Ringling said. Consequently, healthcare providers (and their suppliers) have upped their textile standards. “We’ve done a 180 in terms of our product offering and upgrading those products because they’re willing to pay for it and they want it.”

A third operator, David Potack, president of Unitex, Elmsford, NY, agrees that nonacute care represents a growth opportunity for linen, uniform and facility services companies. While Unitex also specializes in processing hospital textiles, “The outlook for growth is excellent for outpatient healthcare and the services that the industry can provide,” Potack said. “The overall trend in healthcare to move inpatient services to outpatient whenever possible remains strong and expanding. Advances in technologies and techniques for both procedures and recovery continue to accelerate, which increases the different types of procedures that are now possible to perform in an outpatient-healthcare environment. This directly impacts the opportunity for the industry, considering the number of new outpatient facilities being constructed continues to expand, and there is no indication at this time that the trend will slow. This expansion in outpatient healthcare also opens the door to a desire and need for higher-end textile products used to create an enhanced and improved patient experience.”

Look for more in November’s Textile Services or click here for a sneak preview of the full article. Bonus copies of the November issue also will circulate at TRSA’s Healthcare Conference, Nov. 16-17 in Scottsdale, AZ. For information on that event, or to register, go to www.trsa.org/healthcare.

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