Thursday, August 20, 2015

Local hospitals combine laundry cleaning services.

The Greater Jackson Chamber of Commerce issued the following press release:


Hospitals’ collaboration on laundry operations positions Mississippi Healthcare Corridor for Growth

JACKSON – In a move that is expected to achieve $8-9 million in cost savings and advance the Mississippi Healthcare Corridor in the Jackson metropolitan area, Baptist Health Systems, St. Dominic Hospital and the University of Mississippi Medical Center are collaborating to utilize shared laundry services through an agreement with Crown Health Care Laundry Services, a nationally-accredited private-sector health care laundry processor located in Mississippi. UMMC’s five-year agreement with Crown Health Care was approved today at the State Institutions of Higher Learning regularly scheduled board meeting.

The five-mile Mississippi Healthcare Corridor links Interstate 55 and Interstate 220 and includes most of the area’s academic and medical institutions. Anchored by the Jackson Medical Mall Thad Cochran Center, the corridor is dedicated to providing the finest medical care and education throughout the Southeast while hosting a biomedical research enterprise that fosters innovations and enhances applied therapies nationwide.

According to the three participating hospitals, the laundry services agreement is expected to result in capital cost avoidance of approximately $8-9 million by eliminating the need to repair and replace aging laundry equipment. 

This cost avoidance will position the hospitals to increase their focus on providing excellent health care, and their collaborative agreement increases the overall competitiveness and economic vitality of the Mississippi Healthcare Corridor.

“This new services agreement is an example of these major health care institutions working together to gain efficiencies and spur development,” said Gov. Phil Bryant, who is focused on increasing the role of health care as an economic driver in Mississippi. “This willingness to collaborate is vital to continued growth and development within the Mississippi Healthcare Corridor.”

Gov. Bryant’s interest in collaboration among the metro-area hospitals stems from his 2012 visit to the Texas Medical Center (TMC) in Houston.  The world’s largest medical complex, TMC is comprised of multiple participating hospitals and academic centers that collaborate in many areas including infrastructure and support services.

Duane O'Neill, CEO of the Greater Jackson Chamber Partnership said, “Our health care institutions have proven that while they are very competitive, they also believe in collaboration.  The shared laundry allows more financial resources to focus on patient care, which is of the utmost importance for each hospital.”

The hospitals’ laundry services will be processed at Crown’s industrial-scale facility in Columbia, Miss. Crown officials expect to hire 30 to 35 additional employees at their Columbia plant as a result of the increased workload from these three contracts. 

This October, Crown also plans to open a Jackson-area laundry distribution center within the Mississippi Healthcare Corridor to distribute the consolidated laundry from the three hospitals. This distribution center is expected to employ 12-15 people, with employment levels increasing as dictated by laundry volume.

Although each hospital will have a separate contract with Crown, the group issued a joint request-for-proposals through the Greater Jackson Chamber Partnership and jointly negotiated the terms of their contracts.

According to the leaders of the three health care institutions, the timing of the agreement could not have been better.

Chris Anderson, Baptist Health Systems CEO, said, “Baptist has been pleased to work collaboratively with UMMC and St. Dominic’s to consolidate laundry services and in demonstrating that local health care providers are committed to working together to create efficiencies in a very complex health care environment. We are confident this will work well for each organization and its patients and look forward to other partnership efforts in the future.”  

Lester K. Diamond, St. Dominic Hospital president, said, “After careful analysis, we determined that outsourcing our laundry services, in collaboration with other local hospitals, would free up physical space on our campus and allow for capital investment in new medical technology instead of replacing aging laundry equipment. It would also be an important step in creating greater collaboration for future development in the Mississippi Healthcare Corridor.”

Dr. Lou Ann Woodward, UMMC vice chancellor for health affairs, said, “The hospital’s laundry equipment is nearing the end of its useful life. By shifting laundry operations to a third-party, we can realize a substantial savings on capital investment in new equipment, and the space occupied by our laundry facilities on campus can be repurposed for other uses. By unifying our laundry services, UMMC, Baptist and St. Dominic’s can allocate more resources to patient care.”

The amount of laundry managed at each of the health care institutions’ respective on-campus facility is significant, and the costs of repairing or replacing laundry equipment, along with the service costs of processing clean laundry and linen for each of the institutions’ main campus and satellite clinics throughout the state, has rendered the provision of laundry services untenable compared to more efficient alternatives.

Baptist Health Systems processes 4 million pounds of laundry at its campus facility each year, while St. Dominic Hospital handles 2.7 million and UMMC processes 4.2 million. UMMC-Grenada maintains its own laundry facilities and is not included in this contract.
 
Aside from its industrial-scale facility in Columbia, Crown also boasts laundry processing facilities in Selma, Ala., Quitman, Ga., and Pensacola, Fla. In the event of an emergency disruption in service at the Columbia plant, laundry service would be managed at one of Crown’s other facilities, preventing any disruption of laundry and linen services to the three health care institutions.
 - -
 About Crown Health Care Laundry Services
Founded in 1955 and accredited by the Healthcare Laundry Accreditation Council (HLAC), Crown Health Care Laundry Services, Inc. is an independent full-service health-care laundry that specializes in providing laundry and linen service to hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers, imaging centers and physician practices throughout the Southeastern United States. The company’s mission is to provide health-care laundry and linen services to customers who demand quality products and cost control through the best possible utilization of linen.
 

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

Greater Jackson now includes creating new jobs in Columbia, Mississippi? Leave it to overpaid Duane.

Anonymous said...

Capital investment avoidance is not "cost savings".

Anonymous said...

damn it. i had this idea years ago. i should have done it.

Anonymous said...


The PR doesn't tell Mississippi what the deal is worth to Florida company Crown. It only estimates what capital isn't going to be spent.

A 5 year multi-million dollar deal with a Florida company? Really? Is that what your Healthcare Corridor is all about Phil, generating big bucks for non-Mississippi companies? You've got to be freaking kidding us.

Who is advising you Phil? The Economic Development wizard Haley Barbour?

Anonymous said...

I understand what you are saying, 11:21.

11:12 here. I'm in administrator at one of these three hospitals.


But from a pure business perspective--especially when talking about hospitals--they have to manage risk and go with a proven service.

Not sure how many existing purely based Mississippi companies are doing Laundry in a logistically advantageous position for the three hospitals in the Metro area.

Let's say I had followed through and really worked and driven hard to do this-- I remember being at an initial meeting about the "vision" for the healthcare corridor at Nick's.

Even if I could have successfully built out the infrastructure, I would still have been an unproven service that could ultimately fail and not produce any type of cost savings. A risk I don't think the hospitals would have taken.

Anonymous said...

No one should feel badly about taking business out of the state. Business owners should seek the best deal for their shareholders. Period. If Mississippi companies desire to sell their products and services to other Mississippi companies then they should provide the most value.

Anonymous said...

Right. UMMC should always look to fuck the state over as often as they can.

Anonymous said...

2:05, these aren't "Mississippi companies" with shareholders. They're two nonprofit hospitals and a public hospital.

Anonymous said...

This is an excellent deal. Beneficial to all involved. Kudos to the hospitals for working so hard to get this done. I think this is a first step to cooperating on bigger deals, which is good for Mississippians.

Anonymous said...

Quid Pro Quo

BedPan Alley said...

What's the turnaround time on sheets and wash rags going from Jackson to Florida and back?

Meanwhile: I think the guy who claims to be a Jackson Hospital Administrator just said, "Not sure how many....companies are doing Laundry in....the Metro area". Reckon they wouldn't check that out or maybe issue an RFP? Sounds like the Madison county Board of Supervisors.

Bidness Alert said...

ALL business arrangements are Quid Pro Quo.....dumbass.

Anonymous said...

Totally off the subject. Kingfish need someone to check why PERs is three months behind in getting retirements to teachers and state employees filing for benefits. Not rank and file but maybe if management would have their checks suspended until the issue is resolved it would be resolved quicker. For the record I'm not a state employee or teacher

noel said...

So how many people lost jobs at the hospital laundries? I bet it was more than the 12-15 jobs they "plan" to bring to the local distribution office in October. This is a net loss of jobs to Jackson MS unless the had already closed the laundries and were already outsourcing it.

Anonymous said...

Is there any way we can get Crown Health Care to give the dumbassess in Downtown Jackson an institutional enema?

Anonymous said...

The laundry will be done in Columbia, MS.

Anonymous said...

And the Nobel Prize in Laundry Management goes to Dean Wofford......

Anonymous said...

UMMC is certainly a public hospital, but anyone who thinks Baptist and St. Dominic aren't trying to make a profit doesn't know much about hospitals. 501c3 only means tax exempt.

Cut The Jobs said...

It's business, Noel @ 7:36. No employer has an obligation to maintain and grow its employee numbers. Progress and improvement in this regard almost always mean job elimination. Otherwise the hospital would employ two hundred people with wash tubs and scrub boards, just to satisfy people like you.

noel said...

Oh, I don't care about the employees. I just hate stories about how we're bringing jobbyjobs to da city but it's a lie because math.

Anonymous said...

The entire f'ing Republican establishment medical corridor storyline is about growing jobs. That is obviously bullshit.

Anonymous said...

@ 7:28

It is because they are upgrading / installing a completely new system.

I was a consultant working on that implementation and got out because it was a complete disaster.

I can talk more if interested. I genuinely hope they are figuring it out over there.

Run it like a business.... said...

Yes 10:48, UMMC is a 'public hospital'. As such, part of its support comes from tax dollars. And if they have found a way to save money, thus save the amount of tax subsidy that is required, damned if I'm not for it.

Their purpose is not to be an employment function. Granted, many city, county and state agencies tend to think that way, but that is not the function of a government entity - including UMMC.

And 7:36 if that mean cutting the number of employees at UMMC in order to save this money - so be it. That's what innovation and operation are all about.

Quit your bitching. Congratulate them for finding a way to save dollars. And just because it might not be based in Jackson, or its corporate headquarters be in Mississippi - again, this is not an employment program but a service required of this state agency.

Only people like Mayor Yarbor thinks that jobs and corporate headquarters locations should determine how to spend money, irrespective of the result or the ultimate cost to the folks footing the bill.

Anonymous said...

soon Crowne will control the price and the inflation spiral will cost more than equip soap and labor would ever cost

bad decision - bad politics


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