You’re busy making sure you’re taking care of all your patients, employees, and staff. Managing schedules, weekly operations, and all the behind the scenes details. While linens are a key piece of your weekly operations, they’re not always at the top of your radar. Often in the medical industry, linen inventory isn’t handled optimally. Use this guide for hospital linen management best practices.
Your Guide to Linen Management
Your linens play a key role in your patient experience. It’s critical to manage them well- to have what you need when you need it and to not pay for things you don’t need. Use the following best practice tips to streamline and optimize your linen inventory management.
Know Your Need
Your linen needs likely fluctuate week by week with patient volume. It is essential to keep your available linen inventory in alignment with your need. Otherwise, you run the risk of not having sufficient linens on a given week OR paying for linens you don’t actually need. Maintain good records, follow the trends, and keep a pulse on your weekly linen needs.
Customize to Your Schedule
Different medical procedures require different staff and different types of medical garments. Make sure your available inventory is sufficient to support your procedure schedule. Keep in mind nurses, doctors, and patients all wear different gowns and you may need different linens on hand for different types of medical scenarios.
Optimize Linen Use
Make the best use of your linens throughout the day. Never reuse soiled linens, but adopt sustainability practices that will optimize your linen usage. One example is keeping a blanket for the duration of a patient’s stay or until it’s unclean. Optimize your linen use within government regulations, safety, and cleanliness. This will not only lighten the load on your inventory management, but it’s also more cost-effective.
Use a Linen Management Service
The easiest way to keep your medical linen inventory clean and ready to use is outsourcing it to a linen health care services provider. Renting your linens instead of owning them makes an even bigger impact. You’ll still need to do your part to ensure you always have what you need, but your linen service provider will carry most of the burden.
Keep an Eye on Billing
If you’re working with a linen service provider, make sure you’re getting what you’re paying for. Keep a watchful eye on your billing invoices. Understand what you’re getting and every separate cost. Make sure you are optimizing your linen management budget and not paying for anything you don’t need.
Wilkins Handles Linens So You Can Focus On Patients
Keeping your linen inventory managed well frees your time for more important things like taking care of your patients. Use these best practices in linen management to make sure your linen inventory is optimized. Wilkins Linen is your Conroe and Houston area health care linen resource and service provider. It’s our pleasure to support you with the highest quality health care linens and management services as you care for your patients. Contact Us for more information on managing your health care linen inventory.
