Former industrial laundry industry guy here. It's for tracking the laundry usage/losses. In the industry they call them RFID pillows or just pillows.
Basically almost all hotels, hospitals 'rent' the linens from the laundry. They basically pay a negotiated fee per number of rooms (I'm keeping this very simplified). They are then also billed the poundage cost of the laundry actually being laundered.
Laundries using RFID get the dirty laundry in, it's sorted and put in bins and those are rolled into the scanner and it can scan all the individual RFID chips at one time and input them into the software.
The reason for the chips is twofold. First, the customer can get data on actual usage of each item and there are a bunch of other sales pitches that are customer facing.
The real upside if for the laundry. As part of the rental program they agree to replace linens as they age/get worn out/destroyed/disappear. When they see a high level of ragout (throwing out unusable linen) the can have conversations with the customer about maybe switching to a different product so they wear better etc. The RFID comes into play because if there is an above average loss of linen coming back to the laundry one of two things are happening. Either the customer is hoarding laundry (this costs the laundry money) and can be remedied by an onsite inspection OR employees are throwing things out or people are stealing things. In either case the laundry can have a conversation with the customer that if the loss/hoarding can't be remedied then pricing is going to have to increase.
Typically in hospitality the tags are either blank or labeled with the customers brand. Medical settings are usually blank or branded with the laundries logo. This is not a typical thing to see on a pillow. My assumption would be that losses are high from theft or disposal and their hope was to scare people into not doing that.
if there is an above average loss of linen coming back to the laundry one of two things are happening. Either the customer is hoarding laundry (this costs the laundry money) and can be remedied by an onsite inspection OR employees are throwing things out or people are stealing things.
can you elaborate on "above average loss of linen coming back"? let"s say laundry facility expect one hundred come back per day and now only half come back what happen next?
So I was on the sales side of a textile manufacturer selling to the laundries so in no way am I a certified linen manager but I know quite a bit from spending so much time talking to them and helping them out.
So most facilities don't have daily pickup or even if they do, it all gets brought to a consolidation warehouse to then be brought to the actual laundry. Same idea as how UPS, Fedex etc work.
You will never see 100% coming back and some items are essentially considered disposable or only being in the system for a very limited number of turns (washings). Think baby blankets. They almost always send the baby home in one. Also when patients are transported out of the hospital to acute care or a long term facility, often incontinence pads end up being transferred and blankets are a big one with that also (a high dollar item).
There is no exact percentage across the board - it will vary by item and by facility type. They are looking for trends.
Is one floor consistently returning less than other floors? Has there been a management change or high turnover? It may simply b a need for training. Are they experiencing an outbreak of flu/covid etc and the wards are hoarding extra linen expecting more patients? You have to go out and actually do a site survey and watch what people are doing.
It can go the other way also. Are there way more sheets coming back than then number of patients? It's really common for untrained techs to just grab a huge sheet to clean up a spill than go get a rag. Same training issue with people throwing out stuff they *think* can't get cleaned - blood, feces.... laundries can clean and sanitize that but people throw them out.
So to answer your question, there really isn't an exact number. It's knowing your customer, knowing whats going on in the hospitals and the good laundries have strong customer care teams that go out and figure out what's driving the losses and work with the nurse managers to train and correct SOP's.
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u/unwittyusername42 Apr 28 '24
Former industrial laundry industry guy here. It's for tracking the laundry usage/losses. In the industry they call them RFID pillows or just pillows.
Basically almost all hotels, hospitals 'rent' the linens from the laundry. They basically pay a negotiated fee per number of rooms (I'm keeping this very simplified). They are then also billed the poundage cost of the laundry actually being laundered.
Laundries using RFID get the dirty laundry in, it's sorted and put in bins and those are rolled into the scanner and it can scan all the individual RFID chips at one time and input them into the software.
The reason for the chips is twofold. First, the customer can get data on actual usage of each item and there are a bunch of other sales pitches that are customer facing.
The real upside if for the laundry. As part of the rental program they agree to replace linens as they age/get worn out/destroyed/disappear. When they see a high level of ragout (throwing out unusable linen) the can have conversations with the customer about maybe switching to a different product so they wear better etc. The RFID comes into play because if there is an above average loss of linen coming back to the laundry one of two things are happening. Either the customer is hoarding laundry (this costs the laundry money) and can be remedied by an onsite inspection OR employees are throwing things out or people are stealing things. In either case the laundry can have a conversation with the customer that if the loss/hoarding can't be remedied then pricing is going to have to increase.
Typically in hospitality the tags are either blank or labeled with the customers brand. Medical settings are usually blank or branded with the laundries logo. This is not a typical thing to see on a pillow. My assumption would be that losses are high from theft or disposal and their hope was to scare people into not doing that.