The model of washing plus rental for medical linen has both advantages and disadvantages.
Currently, large-scale central medical laundry companies with tunnel washers as core equipment that offer rental services have the following advantages.
Advantages of the Washing Plus Rental Model of Medical Linen
● The laundry equipment mainly includes a fully-automatic tunnel washer system, barrier washer, and dryer. Contaminated linen enters from the front end of the tunnel washer, and the washed linen directly enters the press from the outlet at the rear end. The distance between the front and rear ports is more than 12 meters, so that the loading of contaminated linen and the unloading of clean linen enter and exit through different doors. This avoids cross-infection from the source.
- The length of the tunnel washer is over 12 meters, so that people can install a partition. This helps realize the division of functional areas, such as contaminated zones and clean zones. It also completely blocks the occurrence of cross-contamination.
- Conveyor belts, shuttle conveyors, and pneumatic conveying systems are used for linen transportation.
- Personnel and equipment in clean zones and contaminated zones are configured independently. Linen flows in a one-way direction. Combined with the negative pressure design for air, this better prevents secondary cross-contamination.
- High-speed chest ironers are adopted for ironing, which increases ironing efficiency several times.
- Bedding folded and stacked by automatic folders is flat, neat, and highly aesthetic
- The detergent is a branded liquid synthetic cleaning agent.
Detergent dosing is automated via computer-programmed procedures or liquid dispensers. Linen is automatically weighed before being conveyed for washing. All of which ensures stable washing quality.
- Laundry companies are equipped with tap water softening systems, so the washed linen does not turn yellow or gray and remains clean and fresh.
● The centralized washing of many hospitals avoids the repeated investment of hospitals, and the usage rate of laundry equipment can be fully improved. The washing volume of the tunnel wash is large. It washes 1200kg to 2000kg of linen per hour, so that the consumption of water, electricity, and gas reaches a reasonable proportion, the heat recovery and the wastewater can be handled together. This makes contributions to energy conservation, emission reduction, and rational utilization of social resources. Also, it has beautified the medical environment of various hospitals.
● The logistical preparations of socialized laundry companies are more thorough.
- A professional sewing and production team ensures that the linen that needs to be mended every day can be repaired in time. Special linens that need to be made temporarily are sewn according to the hospital’s requirements.
- A series of preparations, including a large backup generator set, an electric boiler, a 500-ton water storage tank, three sets of air compressor systems, four maintenance and repair technicians who have received professional training from the equipment manufacturer, and more than ten transport vehicles, have ensured the timely supply of hospital linen for 365 days, eliminating the hospital’s concerns.
● The laundry company has obtained various standard system compliance certifications: ISO9001 quality system certification, environmental certification, health certification, safety system certification…
This effectively enhances the service levels and capabilities of professional companies in all aspects.
● After implementing the rental of bedding, the hospitals don’t need to send personnel to purchase linen, and don’t need to set up bedding management warehouses or personnel. They only need to provide the laundry company with a room for collecting dirty linen and a temporary distribution room for clean linen, with areas of approximately 30 square meters and 60 square meters, respectively. Clean area and dirty area should be separated. In each of the two rooms, people should place clean and dirty transport carts, sinks, disinfection lamps, workbenches, etc., respectively. The whole place is clean, tidy, and easy to manage.
● The linen rental is systematically managed by the laundry company.
The daily scrapping and renewal of linen are handled by the laundry company in terms of inventory. During the daily sorting and folding process, the employees of the laundry company immediately pick out any substandard products and promptly replenish the corresponding qualified or new products to the turnover linen.
All the scrapping is completed by the washing company, and the clinical use will not be delayed due to the untimely purchase of linen. This reduces the hospital’s capital occupation and asset loss, effectively lowering the hospital’s operating costs.
● The stock of the rental linen in the laundry company is enough. Even though the employees deliver the linen once a day, the supply can still be enough. This reduces the rates of contaminating the clinical environment and loss of linen caused by multiple counts and transfers. Also, the employees can flexibly arrange the delivery time daily and won’t occupy the elevator during peak elevator usage hours. (avoid unnecessary congestion)
● The laundry company can purchase first-class materials and styles of linen according to the requirements of the hospital, uniformly print the hospital’s emblem and name, and also customize the patterns according to the characteristics of the department.
This always ensures that the medical linen is clean, tidy, and free of holes. The fabric quality of bed sheets, duvet covers, and pillowcases has been improved. After washing, they are ironed flat, and the overall appearance is beautiful.
● Hospitals require the customer service manager of the laundry company to regularly or irregularly conduct an opinion consultation survey on the washing quality and the employee service attitude. Once the manager finds problems, the manager will follow up on the problems until they are handled. This effectively reduces the complaint rates from the clinic departments. The satisfaction of the employees and patients continuously increases.
Disadvantages of the Washing Plus Rental Model of Medical Linen
Currently, hospitals still have problems like manual counting, manual record, and secondary pollution, and so on in the management of the medical linen laundry room.
However, with the rapid development of science and technology, the wide application of the Internet of Things, and the mature status of RFID chips, the establishment and use of an intelligent management system of medical linen laundry can further improve the working efficiency and service quality. Then, it is convenient for them to track and trace the linen, which provides a powerful data source for hospital supervision.
Post time: Sep-30-2025