CHICAGO — For Sarah James, RLLD, MBA, and director of product management at Innovative Product Achievements, linen is a “unique commodity.”
“It’s unlike a disposable supply, in that by being reusable and by having a circulating inventory, and different places where the inventory is located at all times, it kind of makes it very complex to manage,” she says.
James, along with Eva Granado, linen distribution manager at Texas Health Harris Methodist, Fort Worth, Texas, spoke on the best practices for healthcare laundry managers to fine-tune and refine their facility’s linen distribution processes in an Association for Linen Management (ALM) webinar titled Maximizing Linen Distribution Methods.
“The goal of linen distribution is to provide clean, reusable quality products and adequate supply on a timely basis in a convenient location, and making sure that you’re supporting patient care and the staff linen needs, and managing the replacement cost and the processing cost for managing the inventory,” says James.
COORDINATION AND BALANCE
Achieving this overall goal requires coordination of a laundry’s staff, textiles and processes, says James, and a balance of variables unique to every healthcare facility—among them, fluctuating patient volume.
“When you’re trying to balance your goals, try to base it in your user areas on the maximum amount of patients that can occupy that section,” says Granado. “That way, you’re not having to do just-in-time [inventory] for that particular area.”
“I know sometimes we try to cut back in certain areas because the usage isn’t very high and we’re always adjusting our pars, but look at what the max is, especially when you start having to cut back your labor,” Granado adds.
Labor costs and budget restrictions are among other variables laundry managers must consider when refining their linen distribution methods, according to James, adding that an overall effective program provides “the right products at the right time, and the right quantity, [in] the right place.”
“[Another] thing you have to think about, especially when you’re cutting back on staff, is the right people,” adds Granado. “If you don’t have the right person doing the job for you, sometimes you’re destined to fail. They have to care about the product and the end-user and making sure that it works.”
CIRCULATING AND MAXIMIZING INVENTORY
Current linen distribution systems run the gamut from exchange carts to floor closet stock, according to James, but regardless of the system, ensuring the “optimal amount of each linen item” is circulating is key in order to meet demand.
“[This] goes back to the balancing of the budget and the resources [for] what you’re able to do,” she says. “For example, if you are required to cut 10% out of your budget, obviously that’s going to impact your circulating inventory, so you might not be able to have a model where you only have linen distribution every 24 hours.”
And in terms of maximizing linen inventory and par levels, James advises managers to create models based on the hospital’s capacity, not the cart itself.
“You want to make sure that you’re not just putting linen on a linen cart just because it fills the cart up,” says James.
“Make sure that you’re adjusting your par levels regularly. Volumes do tend to shift and change inside the hospital, and you want to make sure that you’re adjusting your inventory accordingly, and this is going to make sure that you’re circulating inventory, as well.”
DISTRIBUTION AND UTILIZATION
Distributing linen must support end-users’ work routines and schedules, according to James, and each distribution location must have a “defined set of products and par levels.”
One other aspect James highlighted in establishing distribution guidelines is to take utilization and patient requirements into consideration.
“Make sure that the products that they have are going to benefit their needs. For example, you don’t want to put a gown with a metal snap inside the radiology department,” says James.
“Your utilization is really going to be more linked to the acuity of the patient,” she adds. “For example, you’re going to use more linen in an ICU area than you are in an emergency department, because the acuity of the patient is different.”
Periodically checking linen usage is the key to adjusting par levels.
“[Check] your usage data by product and/or by pounds for each location,” says James. “You might be delivering them 50 towels every day, but if they’re constantly only using 35 … you have [a] little bit of room to reduce their inventory in that area.”
Check back Thursday for the conclusion!
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