Finding savings in laundry operations

A 450-bed hospital, operating at 75 percent occupancy, which has a cash outlay of $10.00 per patient day for linen service, will spend $1,231,875 on linen service per year. If the cash outlay for linen service can be reduced to $7.00 per patient day, the hospital will save $369,562 per year. This article details the factors that affect linen service operations expenses, suggests ways such operations may be improved, and provides a method of measuring the potential savings.