Episode 82 – From Linens to Logistics: GPOs and Healthcare Partnerships

Jason Risley: Thanks for tuning in to the Linen, Uniform & Facility Services Podcast, Interviews & Insights by TRSA. I’m your host Jason Risley. TRSA held its 14th Annual Healthcare Conference in Boston, MA, in November 2025. During the conference, Liz Remillong, the vice president of strategic alliances at CORE Linen Services; and Stephanie Gregg, senior consulting director, indirect spend, at Vizient, gave a presentation on the role that group purchasing organizations, or GPOs, play in the healthcare sector, and their impact on healthcare laundry services. I recently sat down with both Liz and Stephanie to discuss this topic further and get their thoughts on the evolution and role of GPOs, pressures facing modern healthcare systems, supply chain resiliency and the importance of reusable textiles, infection prevention, and ways to improve partnerships between laundries and healthcare providers, among other topics.

Jason Risley: I’m here today with Liz Remillong from CORE Linen Services and Stephanie Gregg from Vizient. Thanks for joining me today. We have a lot to cover today during today’s discussion, so let’s dive right in. Stephanie, let’s start with the most basic question. What is a group purchasing organization and what role do GPOs play in the American healthcare system today?

Stephanie Gregg: Sure. So thank you first of all for having me. I appreciate it. So GPOs are group purchasing organizations. When we first started, GPOs were primarily about aggregating the purchasing power through nationally approved suppliers. You know, the idea is generate cost savings for their members. Today, a successful GPO, they’ve expanded beyond the transactional purpose purchases into performance improvement companies. Most successful GPOs focus not only on supply chain procurement, but also on market intelligence, strategic analytics and comprehensive consulting services.

Jason Risley: How has the role of GPOs evolved over the past decade? What problems are they being asked to solve now that maybe weren’t front and center before?

Stephanie Gregg: GPOs really require a transformative action. They’re looking at system-level solutions to help protect margins, to strengthen access and to rebuild the operations, healthcare, laundry and linen suppliers. They’ve become regional in scope rather than national, with the exception of course of the suppliers that focus on like nonacute scrubs, uniforms, microfiber, those types of things. Supply chain disruptions, shifts in reimbursement models and tariffs have also disrupted the industry. So you’ve seen a lot of price increases, staff shortages and delays in shipping.

Jason Risley: Liz, from the perspective of a commercial laundry operator, what does the role of GPOs mean to you and your company?

Liz Remillong: Well, they’re critical to our success. I mean, as we know most healthcare organizations for sure, the big systems are members of GPOs. GPOs are involved in the overwhelming majority of RFPs that come out and so for us, it’s communication that we may or may not have had, but also a conduit for opportunities and there’s an advantage for having some consistent GPO suppliers that are used to looking at RFPs and know what questions to ask. So for us, I mean it’s an integral part of our success and getting opportunities, especially if you have more than one region across the country and trying to have opportunities that are national and you want to be able to be in those opportunities. Critical.

Jason Risley: Where do you see the biggest disconnect or alignment between how healthcare providers think about sourcing and how service partners like laundries operate?

Liz Remillong: Well, laundries are manufacturing with the service component or service companies with the manufacturing component. So what we try and do is work with the GPOs to understand that that you know the price bid or the price at the pump, excuse me as I like to call it, is it’s just one part of what their overall cost is going to look like after you start service. So for us, they’re looking for a partner that not only has good pricing, but also helps them manage that overall cost per pound and keep it low because it’s behavior that drives that number, not just the price.

Jason Risley: Now let’s take a look at some healthcare trends. Stephanie, when you look across Vizient’s members, what are the top pressures that healthcare systems are facing right now? Either financial, operational or clinical, or is it all of the above?

Stephanie Gregg: Well, unfortunately, it really is all of the above, but I think we’ll talk about the primary pressures, which are both financial and operational. You know, right now there’s economic uncertainty. Ever since the global pandemic, we’ve had natural disasters. My goodness, the port strikes, tariffs, they really have affected the cost and the healthcare laundry services on a local level at the hospitals. What we normally see in some of the largest cost drivers really are patient linen loss or scrub loss. And then just an overall mismanagement of linen utilization. So through performance improvements, data analytics and then hopefully subject-matter expertise, Vizient, we’ve been successful in mitigating millions of dollars in savings with our clients, which results in improving patient satisfaction. And then proactively partnering to see continual cost improvement and management. On the other side, you really do have labor shortages. They continue to remain an issue for laundry suppliers. There’s a high staff turnover. There also remains a shortage of the trained and experienced equipment engineers. Schools aren’t teaching that to our students anymore and everybody believes we have to go to college to be successful and that’s not the case. And then of course we have the aging leadership population.

Jason Risley: Cost containment is obviously a top priority, but lowest price doesn’t always translate to the best value. How do you define value today?

Stephanie Gregg: So you know, our goal is always to meet the clients where they are in their journey. If they’re financially strapped and they’re asking for the greatest savings, then we do provide options and we try to be realistic in the expectations of any of the hidden cost drivers so that they can maintain their savings. I do want to say oftentimes it’s not the lowest price that matters most to providers, but that relationship with a trusted partner, that’s their main priority. They’re looking for transparency and pricing. They want to help improve the clinical outcomes and satisfaction. And they’re looking for opportunities to keep evolving with responsible sourcing and technology. Our clients, they’re expanding beyond the four walls of the hospital. So you’ve really seen growth in like non-acute ambulatory and hospital hospitality markets. We help provide those through data analytics to price transparency and we try to provide guidance for sustained savings and improvement.

Jason Risley: Liz, when you hear about value and outcomes, how does that resonate with what laundry and textile providers are being asked to deliver?

Liz Remillong: Well, I mean to Stephanie’s point, I think she’s absolutely right. I mean a customer at a minimum expects their quantities to be delivered on time with the quality that they can use. The value comes in when you can demonstrate to them that you have subject-matter expertise. Programs and specific tools that you can use with them inside their hospitals to drive that overall cost out. That could include linen loss strategies that reduce that number and it could include utilization programs that are proven. You have to be able to communicate that though very clearly. They’re not going to just bet that you’re going to do that. You have to show them what you’ve done and that you have the tools and the people that can go in and help them. They’re not experts on linen distribution. They’re not experts on linen processing. We have to provide that. That’s the value. Somebody like a CORE working with the GPOs like Stephanie has to be able to communicate that and they know they’re going to get that once they come on board.

Jason Risley: So it’s really a partnership.

Liz Remillong: It absolutely is a partnership. I know there’s this talk about commoditizing, but at the end of the day, if that’s all they wanted, they would bid what? What is your cost to drop at the dock and pick up? And that’s not what we’re seeing in the RFPs. And Stephanie can, you know, attest to that, that RFPs are very specific on what the expectation is and on many things, not just that, but you know, hygienically clean linen, et cetera, et cetera. They’re looking at all of it and they expect all of it.

Jason Risley: Let’s move on to supply chain issues. Supply chain resiliency has been a major lesson from the last few years. Stephanie, how are GPOs thinking differently about risk, redundancy and domestic sourcing?

Stephanie Gregg: Yeah, you’re absolutely right. So I guess the primary change is in the national contracting process. We want to make sure that anybody that’s awarded a national agreement as a supplier, they have access to the textiles in the countries, and the products from the countries that support sourcing, you know, made in America or partnering with countries that we know that we can get our products has been very, very important. Many markets have expanded into partnerships between the GPO and the major suppliers. So what we’re finding now is we’re housing extra products to help improve that domestic sourcing, we’re creating more redundancies in the market and remaining responsible to sourcing. You’re starting to see what you would see through FEMA where you have big systems that are partnering with the GPO to make sure that there is reusable textiles stored someplace within the country in case there is another pandemic or there’s a need.

Jason Risley: What trade-offs are healthcare systems willing or unwilling to make when it comes to resilience versus cost?

Stephanie Gregg: You know, similar to what Liz said earlier, health systems, they’re looking for business partners that they can trust and they share similar values. They want a partnership. So while you know price is important if they see a potential with the supplier for growth, for those quality metrics, for that analytical transparency and just consistency, they’re more likely to award business to this supplier rather than to the lowest, lowest cost supplier.

Jason Risley: Liz, from your vantage point, where do reusable textile programs help mitigate supply-chain disruptions compared to single-use or disposable products?

Liz Remillong: Thanks. Well, from our vantage point, it’s a no brainer. We eliminate the need and if there was any disruption, I mean the reusables are recyclable. So you’re not going to experience what you experienced before, but we also understand that from a healthcare standpoint, there are benefits to increase spend on disposable product for the good of all. So our job is to make sure that they know that they’re available. We’d like a portion of that business. We don’t need all of it to keep them safe. If something were to happen, and I think it’s really just a conversation that balances perceived cost and overall product availability if something were to happen.

Jason Risley: Do you think healthcare leaders fully appreciate yet how reusable programs help provide supply chain stability? And if not, or if so, why do you think is the reason for that?

Liz Remillong: Well, I mean, I’d like to say yes, but unfortunately what the pandemic showed us is that, you know, when the need came, we were asked to fill it, we were able to fill it and when the need went away, they went back to their old practices. So I would like to say, do they appreciate it? I would also like to say that I think because we were able to, in some cases, not in 100%, help support them during that, that might not have helped us in that endeavor. You know, we’ve all got thousands of PPE gowns sitting in warehouses. That being said though, I think that it’s important that we balance it and we give them an opportunity, you know, we share an opportunity to say let us have a portion of it just in case. Now if they have an aggressive sustainability program like some do, I would say that need and that interest is growing if we fill more than just one need and that is OK, have them when we need them. Now we’re talking sustainability and some other things if that’s important to them right now.

Jason Risley: So it’s an ongoing struggle to get more providers to move over to reusable items.

Liz Remillong: It is. And when things like Stephanie described everything going on with tariffs and textile supply and cost, I would say in the last 60 days our requests for talking about surgical gowns and pads and things has gone up and it’s typical because there’s a lag time and a reaction from what’s happening in the global market and they all are discussing it to be prepared. Doesn’t mean they’re going to convert or stay converted, but there is discussion.

Jason Risley: Let’s move into infection prevention in the healthcare space. Infection prevention is obviously non-negotiable. Stephanie, how do GPOs evaluate infection-prevention data when assessing reusable products or services?

Stephanie Gregg: There’s so many factors that come into play when we assess the reusable products and the services, but primarily we rely on our subject-matter experts in the field to validate the infection-control standards at both the laundry and the textile plants. Additionally, you know what you do have those third-party quality audits which as TRSA you are very familiar with and we rely on from TRSA and some of the other professional organizations. Then we look at things like company financial history and provider feedback. We get that from our most, you know, our largest, most respected businesses in the industry.

Jason Risley: There are a lot of misconceptions out there when it comes to reusable linens and textiles. We often hear about the so-called ick factor. I’d be interested to hear from both of you some of the misconceptions you often hear in the healthcare space.

Stephanie Gregg: I’m happy to go first. I’m sure we both have so many stories that we could fill this whole podcast just with our stories. Probably the number one that I’ve heard from whenever I first started 30 years ago as well, if an item has blood or feces on it, you have to throw it away. That’s probably the biggest one. And then since COVID, I’ve heard, well, I don’t know that I can trust the efficacy of a reusable gown to maintain the standards. How do I know how many washes it’s had and if it really is going to work. So those are probably the most common things that we hear. Liz, do you want to add to that?

Liz Remillong: You are spot on. I mean, there is an absolute lack of complete knowledge and education on how professional commercial laundries are from the time that soiled linen hits the dock all the way through the process. They have feces or blood. They honestly, genuinely don’t believe that we would be able to get it clean and they’re doing us a favor by throwing it away or putting it in a red bag. That is by far number one. And what’s interesting about that is that’s also their biggest opportunity for cost savings. Just give it back.

Stephanie Gregg: Yeah.

Liz Remillong: Just send it back, let us decide. But to that end, I mean that’s one also that a reusable PPE or surgical gown that is not disposable is safer and so from our standpoint as an industry, it’s all about how do we educate hundreds of thousands of people to understand that’s not the case and it’s an overwhelming massive process.

Jason Risley: So it sounds like education is a big part of what you do.

Stephanie Gregg: Absolutely. And adding on to what Liz said, the other thing we hear a lot about is scrubs and should scrubs be washed. You know, what’s the difference between if it’s an outside supplier that’s washing scrubs or allowing the employees to take scrubs home themselves and wash it? So there’s still debate and that’s more regional I think, but we still have hospitals that allow their staff to wear scrubs at home, wash them at home and now they’re in the surgery in the operating center, forgetting that. The temperatures at your house laundry will not meet standards and just the transporting back and forth and all the things that could be going on those scrubs.

Liz Remillong: 100%.

Jason Risley: It sounds like you could list a lot of misconceptions, so it just drives home that point that education is very important in this space.

Stephanie Gregg: Yeah.

Jason Risley: Liz, what does hygienically clean mean in practice, and how do commercial laundries demonstrate that standard to healthcare partners?

Liz Remillong: Well, hygienically clean in practice means that those facilities, those laundries that are accredited and certified are following the processes required every single day and proving that they’re following them every single day through internal checks and balances. But more importantly, the outcomes that they get back when they’re sent for microbial testing. To me, in practice, it means that you walk the talk, you can demonstrate on any tour or if somebody asks for reports that you have them readily available and for the ones that are really on top of it, they’re doing more than the minimum required microbial testing. They want to stay on it and they’re doing more than what is minimally asked of them. In practice, it’s a commitment, and the plants that do it very well and exceed the minimums have educated their staff that textiles are a reusable medical device and should be treated as such. We’re not just shipping them off. These are going to patients. They’re in a hospital for a reason and the last thing they need is to have any kind of potential contamination.

Jason Risley: Again, I’d welcome both of your perspectives on how important third-party validation standards and data is to building trust between healthcare systems, GPOs and textile service providers.

Stephanie Gregg: I’m happy to start on this one. From a GPO perspective, if we’re running an RFP, whether it’s a national RFP or just an RFP for a client, so like a big system or a small system for that matter, we will only accept suppliers that have been validated that have that third-party validation and the certification. It’s that important. We have to know that again the day-to-day operations and processes that they’re meeting the suppliers and that they’re keeping the patients safe with the product that they’re sending them. So that’s how important it is for us.

Jason Risley: Do you have anything to add to that, Liz?

Liz Remillong: I completely agree. It is very important on anything; I mean we have third parties come in and calibrate our scales. I mean it is so important from a checks and balances standpoint and transparency, which is the keyword that Stephanie mentioned earlier, you have to be able to be transparent and show that you’re doing all this, so they have a level of confidence in the linen they’re getting and the bill they’re getting and the chemicals you’re providing washing. I mean, all of it. It’s very important.

Jason Risley: On the topic of reusables, Liz, as you know, in 2024, the National Academies of Sciences convened a workshop on reusable textiles and healthcare. What stood out to you from that discussion, particularly as it relates to safety, sustainability and preparedness?

Liz Remillong: Well, that was quite the process, as you know. I didn’t realize how many hands were in the pot. I mean, there were experts from across the country and the world involved in that process. What really stood out to me and we’ve talked about it and it’s not a coincidence, is that there is a complete lack of education and misunderstanding about the viability of reusable textiles from all of those things you just mentioned. From a safety standpoint, an availability standpoint, there’s just a disconnect because linen is always, you know, in a hospital, it’s like turning on the water. I turn on the faucet, it better be there. I need linen. It just wasn’t really … there was no deep diving going on with linen. You know, most hospitals had back 40 years ago, the laundry started in their basement, so when it grew and got transitioned out there, there was no governing body over those. We kind of were an entity under ourselves and each facility sent in an annual IP person maybe that didn’t know anything about it. We have a lot of opportunity in the education of the professionalism and how much detail and thought and work goes into the process of getting them linen every day and to be comfortable and know that it’s safe and there for you.

Jason Risley: Thanks again for adding your testimony on behalf of the industry during that workshop. And at that workshop, the National Academies and the federal government’s top PPE expert encouraged greater use of reusable textiles. In your opinion, are we making progress? And if not, why not?

Liz Remillong: Well, I mean, I don’t want to be Debbie Downer, but not as much progress as we should have made. Now we’re doing well on the legislature side that’s moving along considering all the changes in DC. But from a when the rubber meets the road and we’re talking to systems, we will continue to balance the logic of having a mix of PPE against the perceived cost benefits. If I pull this spend from my Med surge spend, it’s going to cost me more. We have a disconnect and we have to work towards it and we have to be able to speak the language that they’re speaking and that’s where GPOs come in to help us with that because they believe and to some degree it’s true that they could be penalized financially if they move to reusables and we have to be able to either eliminate that as an issue or justify why it’s still a good idea to have a minimum amount available in the reusable.

Jason Risley: Stephanie, at the end of the day, healthcare facilities are your customers. How can commercial laundries better serve health systems and providers as they deliver critical healthcare to people across the country?

Stephanie Gregg: I feel like a broken record sometimes because I keep saying the same thing and it sometimes seems so easy, but I know it’s not from a business perspective. The number one thing I hear from the client is always I want a clear pricing model. I don’t want to have, you know, a 10-page formula of how you’re validating the salt to clean ratio. I want to know this is what you’re charging me. This is what I’m going to pay at the end of the day. And we understand there’s some variances and that kind of stuff, but the number one thing that we hear is be a partner with me. If there’s something I’m doing wrong, let me know. If I’m losing linen, let us know. But what can we do differently and really be that partner so that we have good textiles that keep the patients safe? That there’s availability for my staff, whether it’s scrubs, patient linen, lab coats, whatever it is, that it’s there when I need it. And then give me a, you know, bill me in such a way that I can easily understand it, I can predict it. I can budget for it. The other thing that they want is if you’re going to have a contract that’s going to have these KPIs in it, make sure that they’re measurable and that they actually mean something. So they want validation. Those are probably the biggest things from a client perspective I think that you can do.

Jason Risley: I have one final question for each of you. What’s one thing that healthcare leaders should better understand about reusable textile programs that could make an immediate impact on how they deliver patient care?

Stephanie Gregg: OK, so here’s the deal. Laundry’s not sexy, nor does it get the attention of the clinical services, but it’s so important. And the quality reusable textiles, it plays a vital role in healthcare delivery and patient outcomes. Whether it’s the healing aspect of it or the satisfaction aspect of it, what we do matters. Just within our company, we see over $1.8 billion in spend in laundry alone. So it’s not, again, not sexy, but it’s a vital part of the operation of the hospital. During COVID, it reminded everyone the importance of having reusable isolation gowns, surgical masks and all these other products when the world could no longer provide the disposable products in a timely manner. What we do really does impact patient care day-to-day.

Liz Remillong: 100%, I mean I couldn’t have said it better and also that while we’re a small percentage of their overall budget, we can make a definite impact on cost, which frees up money for them to be able to spend maybe on staffing. Working in a hospital is stressful. The last thing they need are issues that does not contribute to how they deal with their patients. So our job is to make sure that they have right amount, right time and that it’s usable. When they go to grab it off that shelf, they’re not having to go back and forth five times to get up, find a good one. So to me it’s understanding how our product gets used in that hospital, how important it is that it be right, and then more importantly, educate them on how more is not always better, and how to drive that cost down. It’s all about partnership and getting access to have those conversations.

Stephanie Gregg: Very well said.

Jason Risley: We’ll close on that note. Thank you, Liz. And did you have something to add, Stephanie? Sorry to cut you off there.

Stephanie Gregg: I was just saying very well said. I echo everything that was just said.

Liz Remillong: All right, let’s go get ’em. Let’s go get ’em.

Jason Risley: Well, thank you again, Liz, and thank you, Stephanie, for joining me today and sharing your thoughts on this important topic. It’s an important discussion to have in the healthcare space.

Liz Remillong: Thanks for having us, Jason and TRSA.

Stephanie Gregg: Thank you for having us.

Jason Risley: The 15th Annual Healthcare Conference will be held in San Diego on October 14-15, 2026. The Ninth Annual Marketing, Sales and Service Summit will be held on October 13 at the same venue in San Diego. For more information on these events, visit the event calendar on TRSA’s official website at www.trsa.org. Thanks for tuning in, and if you liked what you heard on today’s show, please subscribe, rate and review us on Apple iTunes. For the latest news and information from the linen, uniform and facility services industry, subscribe to our newsletter, Textile Services Weekly, and our monthly print publication, Textile Services magazine. Additionally, follow TRSA across our social media channels on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Tik Tok and X.