Readers of Textile Services magazine should have received their November/December combo issue in recent days, including a cover article on opportunities for laundry operators to provide textiles to outpatient medical facilities. Excerpts from that article “Outpatient Medical – ‘We Continue to See New Opportunities,’” appear below.

The article cites several leading healthcare laundry operators on the subject of where they see the outpatient-medical market headed for the balance of this year and beyond.

David Potack, president of Unitex, a healthcare launderer based in Elmsford, NY, notes that laundry operators considering the pursuit of this trade need to understand the unique needs of this sub-sector of healthcare, which has different requirements than hospital-based linen programs. “Companies that are interested in growing their market share in the outpatient space certainly have to continue to evolve their facilities,” Potack said. “Whether it’s achieving accreditation or expanding inventory and product lines, it’s critical for laundries to understand that outpatient clinics or surgicenters have far different needs than hospitals. It does take a certain specialization and commitment – like any business – really understanding the market drivers and what are the service expectations, which can be very different in an outpatient facility vs. an in-patient hospital.”

While Unitex specializes in processing healthcare textiles in 13 plants serving more than 7,000 customers across the northeast, the burgeoning outpatient market, with its route-based service model, is also drawing interest from industrial and mixed plants across North America. One such operator is Topper Linen and Uniform, Toronto. Owner/operator Tim Topornicki sees the outpatient market in metro Toronto as a great opportunity for outsourced linen providers. “With COVID-19 proving the Canadian medical system is broken, retail medical is going to boom in Canada,” said Topornicki, who is president of Topper.

Various studies have documented the rise in outpatient services, amid advances in healthcare technology that have made complex procedures such as heart surgeries and knee replacements feasible for doctors to complete in a surgery center, rather than a hospital setting. A recent Deloitte study and other research points to a narrowing of the gap between outpatient and inpatient services. The study notes that between 2011-’18 hospital outpatient revenue grew at a higher compounded annual rate (9%) than inpatient revenue (6%). Another analysis by Kauffman Hall found that outpatient revenue grew last year by 16.7% vs. 2022. Outpatient revenues also grew by 35% compared to the first month of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.

Another operator, Bryan Bartsch of Ecotex, a Vancouver-based healthcare launderer with 10 plants in the U.S. and Canada, says the expansion of outpatient services poses issues and opportunities for both healthcare professionals and laundry operators. “The growth of outpatient medical services in North America is reshaping the healthcare landscape by reducing costs, improving access and emphasizing preventive care,” Bartsch said. “However, it also presents challenges related to care coordination, regulatory adaptation and the need for integrated healthcare systems to ensure that patients receive high-quality care across the continuum.” As for linen, uniform and facility services companies, Bartsch noted that, “Laundry operators will continue to see market-segment growth in the future, with more clinics and outpatient facilities opening to address growing healthcare demand from an aging population.” He affirmed that these healthcare facilities are well-suited to work with laundry operators that don’t currently specialize in making bulk deliveries of healthcare textiles to hospitals. “These outpatient facilities use smaller volumes of laundry, which is effectively served with a ‘route-based’ approach,” he said.

While it’s clear that outpatient facilities offer laundry operators a significant growth opportunity, that doesn’t mean it’s an easy market to penetrate, either for healthcare or nonhealthcare laundry specialists. Karl Fillip II, president of NOVO Health Services, an Atlanta-based group of 15 healthcare facilities across the eastern U.S., noted that customers in this sector have demanding expectations for textile services providers. Those laundry operators that can meet healthcare provider requirements, are likely to gain market share. “The rise in outpatient medical care is creating opportunities for more independents and industrial operators to enter the healthcare textile space,” Fillip says. “If a company can provide facilities and their patients with a high-quality experience that meets or exceeds industry standards and expectations, they are in a good position to enter the healthcare textile space.”

Click here to read a PDF version of the full article. The November/December digital edition of Textile Services also is slated for distribution via email to subscribers this Wednesday (Nov. 15). Readers who are interested in subscribing to Textile Services, click here.

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