Episode 36 – TRSA Vaccine Update

Welcome to the TRSA podcast. Providing interviews and insights from the linen, uniform, and facility services industry. Most Americans might not realize it, but they benefit at least once per week from the cleanliness and safety of laundered, reusable linens, uniforms, towels, mats, and other products provided by various businesses and organizations. TRSA represents the companies that supply, launder, and maintain linens and uniforms. And in this podcast, we will bring the thought leaders of the industry to you.

 

This is Jason Risley, and we’re back again with another episode of the Linen, Uniform, and Facility Services podcast sponsored by 6 Disciplines Consulting Services. On today’s episode, we’ll give you an update on TRSA’s advocacy efforts to get the linen, uniform, and facility services industry included at the top of the priority list for the continuing rollout of the COVID 19 vaccine. Joining us today to discuss this topic is Kevin Schwab, TRSA’s vice president of government relations. We have been receiving a lot of questions and inquiries as it comes to vaccine efforts and and the prioritization of our industry. So what’s out there right now?

 

Let’s give you a quick background in case you don’t know. There are currently 2 vaccines that have been approved by the FDA. There are 3 others that are in phase three trials. Except for 1, they’re all 2 dose vaccinations and anywhere from 3 to 4 week time period between each shot. And as more of the vaccines come on the market, the quicker people will be able to get vaccinated.

 

So we’re waiting for the, other 3 to hit the market as they get approved and have gone through the FDA process. So the way that the vaccines are being distributed and we’ve actually had some inquiries from Canada as well, and it’s somewhat similar in Canada in the sense that it’s a centralized administration process that, is being used for the vaccinations. The, federal government is going through the, development stage. It’s going through the procurement stage, And then it also then it is going to distribute it to each state. That’s where the decentralized distribution aspect of this process comes.

 

And just so you know, I was on the phone with the, retired general in charge of of the logistics part of the COVID task force, sending them out to the different states. And this is how he described the process, centralized administration, decentralized distribution. So that means that every state has its own plan. I’ve been getting a lot of questions about reaching out to the CDC and what we can do there. Well, we we can reach out to the CDC, and we have on multiple occasions.

 

But it’s not the CDC that’s been making the final determinations of what the priorities are when it gets to the states. Unfortunately, when you have as many different states and territories, because we have Puerto Rico involved, You’ll see that we have information on Puerto Rico on our website that with 50 different areas and locations, there’s 50 different plans. While there are several that are very similar, a matter of fact, I think I saw a a piece where there are 10 states that are following what the CDC guidelines are to a tee. There are some states that aren’t even close to what the CDC is doing. So it varies from one end of the spectrum to the other as to what the priority level is and how they are moving through it across the state.

 

So I tell you that just to let you know of the, herculean task that we are doing to contact each of the respective COVID task forces. See, I do think that you’re gonna start seeing the herd immunity start taking place more in q 3 from what I’m hearing. This is, you know, this is the information I’ve been gathering. As the other vaccines start rolling out, you’re gonna start seeing a quicker distribution of the vaccines. I understand, where you’re located, you feel like it’s it’s appears to be slower.

 

That has to do with the amount of vaccines that each state is given. The federal government’s determining how many vaccines are being received by each state. That’s where the, issue is is the amount of vaccines that the federal government is issuing to the states. So far, this is what t r s a has done, and it would present a little background to you as we move forward. So far, as we over the last few weeks or months, actually, we have been in close contact with the CDC, more specifically, the advisory committee on immunization practices, as well as we’ve contacted every governor of every state, every chief of staff, as well as every respective COVID task force.

 

We have I’ll talk about this in a minute. But on our resource page, you’ll see that we have the contact information for every state’s COVID task force. And we have been in contact with them to talk about what the importance of our industry. A lot of people have been talking to me about or or asking me with our essential services designation, why aren’t we higher up on the process? Well, we are high on the process, But we also have to realize that during the designation of essential services, that’s from DHS, from the, Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency.

 

That’s where that comes from. The CDC is using a very different set of definitions when it comes to these essential services, and it has to do with frontline workers, and it has to do with the proximity of, being around the possibility of of of contamination. So that’s where the, states are getting their guidance from is the CDC, not the DHS definition of essential services. And the message that you’ll see that we’ve been talking about is that our services, the uniform, linen, and facility services industry, that’s operators and supplier partners. We are pushing hard for everyone to be able to stay as safe as possible, and their workforce stay as safe as possible.

 

Now for a brief message. Alright. This is Jason Risley. I’m here with Eric Kurgan of 6 disciplines. We’re talking about why strategy matters now more than ever, building a plan to thrive.

 

So, Eric, why does strategy matter now more than ever? Great question, Jason. You know, in previous webinars and articles, I’ve shared a perspective of how organizations can get back on track. We examined the phases of independent laundries and what they were experiencing and offered several different tools to consider beginning the steps toward recovery. And although much has changed since the webinar last summer, we’re still faced with very similar scenarios.

 

There remains a focus on how to manage capacity, how to manage expense against a shortfall in revenue, how to manage efficiency and productivity. But with very little focus on what is next, staying in survival mode has been the only call to action for many. And with this 2nd round of shutdown or limitations, many people who were moving forward had to go back to these earlier phases, especially to the phases that we referred to as reduce and remain. So there’s a series of checklist items that we’ve put together that we need to consider in these phases and I I refer to it as the pandemic operational checklist. And I really believe these are things organizations need to be doing in order to survive.

 

And there are 9 items that they could consider, managing and leading the business in a better way. The first is revenue generation and so that’s introducing temporary or permanent new offerings whether that’s with existing customers or new customers. Obviously reducing spending, expense management. And what that leads to is the 3rd item, which is conserve cash wherever you can. Because we don’t know what the true length of the pandemic is and how how long it will take for our clients to come back to us, We need to make sure we have cash, and so either we need to conserve cash or we need to have access to it in some other fashion.

 

AR management, accounts receivable management, really, really important that leads back to cash flow. So, I know many organizations have really pushed hard on ACH and or credit card as a means of payment to shorten that, AR management concern. Inventory management. What can we reduce out of our inventory that we really don’t need anymore? Are there things that allow us just to reduce the overall inventory?

 

Supply chain, access to product. Boy, you think back several months ago and that you could not get a mask, you could not get hand sanitizer, you had difficulty getting a whole variety of products. And that possibility still exists, especially as organizations come online later in the the spring time frame. And, I think it’s really important to be multi sourced. So what are the best deals but you also have to have a way to get access to to products.

 

This next item, the 7th item is really, I believe, one of the most important and that’s the staffing model. And so do we have the capacity to meet the needs of production? Because the staffing model is the most expensive component within any organization is their their people. And we we’ve really need to understand what that capacity need is and what that staffing need is. Customer retention, doing what almost whatever is needed in order to retain customers.

 

It takes great effort to get a customer to begin with and then it takes even more effort to make sure they stay yours. So making sure that you’re flexible helping them in their scenarios stay viable. So you want them and that you wanna be able to demonstrate your ability to help what they need. And then the last item is communications and this is communications to your teams and communication to your customers and you can never do it too often. Communication is a critical element.

 

And one thing I have observed is because of, if you will, COVID fatigue, some organizations have actually become a little bit lax in terms of staying in touch with their their people. So, I think it’s really an important point. So those 9 items part of that operational checklist list are are really critical. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on strategy today, Eric. Do you have any more resources that our listeners can access to get more information?

 

Or how may they get in contact with you if they have any questions? I would encourage anyone to, take a look at our website. That’s 6dconsultingsixdconsulting.com. There’s some resources out there. There are some items that, we actually shared in our webinars over the summer time frame, that deal with strategy, so I would encourage organizations to do that.

 

And if anyone would have any questions, I’d be more than happy to address them directly atekurjan atsixdconsulting.com. Alright, Eric. Thanks for sharing today. It was a pleasure. Always.

 

Thanks, Jason. Now back to the episode. You know, along with us reaching out to everyone we have, we’ve established some resources on our coronavirus resource center. And, you go to our website, and it’s it’s right as you land at at the home page, you’ll be able to go to it. And what we’re providing is, 1, we just have a copy.

 

There’s there’s it’s a letter to the National Governors Association, but that’s a cup a letter that Joe has sent to every governor and the chief of staff. So I’d that’s one so you can see what we are saying. There are also 2 letters. 1 that you as an operator or supplier partner can send to your policy makers. It is customizable.

 

It’s very you’ll you’ll see that it’s got our message. It’s got our narrative, but there are details that need to be filled out by you and put on your letterhead to send to policymakers and your clients. So that’s there for you to go to. The link to every state’s vaccination plan and as well as Puerto Rico, the links to those plans so you can see for yourself what those states are doing as you move forward. Whether you’re a single plant operator or supplier that’s only in one state, you can see what that state’s doing.

 

Or if you’re multiple state, then you can go to each one. We also have a link that takes you to the exact guidance of the prior prioritization of each vaccine plan. So you can click on it. It takes you exactly to what that state says. And if you’re kind of if if you’re looking for something to do, start clicking through the different states, and you’ll see what I’m talking about when I would mention it’s 50 different types of of rollout plans.

 

So that’s there. We have provided that to help you reach out to your clients and to your policy makers to be, recognized as an essential service as it comes to the vaccination plan. This is a team contact sport, guys. There’s one of me and there’s 50 states as well as, you know, people have been talking to me about about Canada. The only reason that we I can be successful is if you guys are involved and you are successful too.

 

Reach out to your policy makers. We have the resources for you to do that. We and and we have the, information on who that is. Reach out to your clients. If you’re a health care laundromatry, what’s the best source for getting your team the vaccine?

 

In almost all of the guidance, health care the health care community, those folks that are either frontline or back of the house opportunities in some states have actually said laundry workers are considered in phase 1 a. If you’re a health care laundry, you reach out to your clients who are health care clients and let them know that you are an integral part of their process. Without you, they wouldn’t be able to run. So you need to reach out to them and this I’ve talked to, folks have that have had success with this. Then when they get contacted at that the vaccine’s available for their organization, They can include you as part of that organization.

 

That’s the importance of reaching out to your clients. If it’s not specifically mentioned in your guidance documents, that’s how you can get your health care laundry a vaccine. I just mentioned the health care. A high priority is also food processors and agricultural workers and grocery workers. If you are providing textiles to that industry, then in order for them to run, they need to be able to have their clean cover their clean coats and their clean overalls.

 

And you contact those clients, and they will be able to reach out to you and make you part of their plan as it comes to vaccines. Because of the vagueness of the definition, we our health care sector folks are conceivably considered phase 1 a right off the bat. And then others are down to 1 b because it operates under agriculture and other manufacturing. So it’s incumbent upon you to look at your individual states phased rollout to see what it is. The the lowest level that our industry is is category 1 c as an essential service that is not covered by previous categories.

 

So at the very least, we’re category 1 c. Now I wanted to describe to you real quick, to go through the process. From what I understand and from the briefing I received last week, that states are reaching out to a contact list via email. And I also know that, news they’re reaching out to the media that there’s going to be contact websites for you to go to to register for your vaccines, and then they will tell you where and how to get them. Moving from one phase to another, they likened it to when you board an airplane.

 

They’ll say group 1, you’re able to go. And even before group 1 is all the way on, they’ll bring in group 2 and then group 3 even before they’ve all boarded. So you can go in as soon as they move to the next phase. It’s not gonna be all done and then move to the next phase. It’s going to be a controlled phased in approach is what I’ve been told, is they’re gonna start with phase 1 a, and then as they feel comfortable about that, they will then move into 1 b, and then they’ll move into 1 c.

 

So it’s not everyone in one a is gonna get their vaccination, then we’re gonna move forward. It’s gonna be here’s a time frame. Once we have that time frame, we’re gonna move to the next and move to the next and move to the next. So that’s the process that’s being used. The letter that we provided for you to send the clients, the client would need to send you some sort of documentation that they recognize you as an essential partner to them to keep them running.

 

So we already know several operators that have received those types of documentations from their clients. As Kevin mentioned, if you’d like more information on COVID 19 vaccine availability for you and your staff, you can visit TRSA’s coronavirus resource center online at www.trsa.org/covid19. That’s www.trsa.org/covid19. Today’s episode featured an excerpt from TRSA’s recent vaccine efforts and industry update webinar. The webinar also featured detailed information on the recent COVID 19 stimulus package that was signed into law by former president Donald Trump.

 

If you’d like to listen to the full webinar recording, visit TRSA’s on demand learning center at www. Trsa.org/ondemand. Thanks again to our sponsor, 6 Disciplines Consulting Services. And as always, make sure you subscribe, rate, and review our show on Apple Itunes, Google Podcasts, and Stitcher. Additionally, don’t forget to follow TRSA on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter.