Modern healthcare providers face many challenges in providing patients and practitioners with healthy, safe experiences. Ongoing waves of illness and the time and energy it takes to manage and maintain medical laundry operations are too much for many medical centers to handle alone. Fortunately, specialized service providers like Nixon Medical provide lab coat rental services that not only relieve the pressures of the modern healthcare landscape but also offer several benefits outpatient centers increasingly rely on to streamline operations, reduce costs, elevate the professionalism of their brand, and more.

Read through our lab coat rental program benefits you never knew about to learn how this convenient, cost-effective, customizable solution can lead to better patient and practitioner experiences.

In an effort to serve the overwhelming waves of patients throughout the pandemic, healthcare and medical organizations increasingly look to outsource their medical uniform inventory management operations through scrub rental programs that handle delivery, pickup, and laundering. 

Since the pandemic began, leading uniform service companies have cited a significant rise in the adoption of managed uniform programs, particularly in the healthcare industry. Businesses that hadn’t previously considered outsourcing their medical linens are rapidly welcoming the concept, as in-house scrub and medical linen processing capacity becomes impossible to maintain.

Are you considering outsourcing your medical linens with a scrub rental service? You should know a few things first. Follow along as we cover the basics of scrub rental programs and the 7 benefits it brings to medical organizations.

Think all patient exam gowns are created equal? Think again.

Patient gowns come in a wide variety of styles and materials that serve distinct purposes. There are gowns that provide access to specific areas of the body, and there are gowns that protect against bodily fluids. Other gowns exist to fit children or larger patients, as well as budget constraints and processes.

Outpatient practices, such as imaging, women’s health, or pediatrics, will have different needs than inpatient centers and hospitals. And what’s more, clinicians require different gowns than their patients.

Use this guide to understand the attributes and use cases of different patient gowns.

What does the patient experience look like in your outpatient healthcare center? In the last few years, almost every industry has elevated the experience that people have with their services, products, and solutions, and healthcare is no different. In fact, with reimbursements tied to patient satisfaction, the experience that your outpatient care center delivers is more important than ever.

Think about each step of the patient experience, from the moment a patient arrives in your healthcare facility to the time they leave, to identify opportunities for enhancement. As medical apparel and linen specialists who are in and out of thousands of outpatient care centers every day, we have seen it all—and we know what a great outpatient care experience looks like in 2021.

It’s easy to talk about the time and money that outpatient healthcare centers can save by outsourcing their medical linen and laundry services to an accredited laundry facility. But there’s more to healthcare than time and money. Most healthcare providers are committed to providing exceptional patient experiences, but without the right tools, management, and organizational support, that commitment can only go so far.

In addition to saving time and money, outsourcing medical linens plays a key role in elevating patient satisfaction through more positive and comfortable experiences. Today, we’re looking at some of the ways outsourced medical linen laundry services improves the patient experience and satisfaction.

If the staff and clinicians in your outpatient healthcare center have ever had a conversation about reusable versus disposable medical apparel and linens, you’re not alone. This is a hot topic in healthcare facilities of all kinds, and we are here to help your facility come to a conclusion once and for all.

We have all heard the words “unprecedented”, “unpredictable”, and “unknown” a lot this year. While those words have become mainstays of casual conversation surrounding COVID-19, they also carry with them a lot of stress on affected industries, businesses, and services, including outpatient healthcare.  

Stay-at-home orders that escalated at the start of COVID-19 caused a suspension of elective medical procedures and reduced patient counts. Just like all other businesses forced to temporarily shut their doors, it became absolutely critical for outpatient centers to reduce costs while patient visits, services, and subsequent revenue was at a standstill. For outpatient centers, many of which spend around 20% of revenue on supplies¹, inventory like medical apparel and linens was a natural cost to cut or reduce.

While some outpatient centers found themselves locked into agreement minimums despite the unprecedented circumstances, others found relief from flexible medical inventory agreements. Keep reading to discover how the pandemic has proved the value of flexible medical inventory programs.

To reuse or to dispose? That is the question.

In fact, it is a question that has provoked debates and research in healthcare settings for decades. Today, however, experts agree that reusing medical textiles is the optimal method. Some of the primary benefits of reusing medical gowns, linens, and other textiles include maintaining a base level of PPE during conventional and crisis capacity times, improving patient and staff satisfaction, enhancing environmental quality, reducing waste, and finally, controlling costs.

While all of these benefits make a compelling case for choosing reusable medical textiles over disposable medical textiles, this blog will focus on how disposable medical apparel and linens are deflating your bottom line—something that the healthcare industry is taking a more critical look at amid COVID-19, which has decreased patient volumes, disrupted patient flow, and reduced revenue.

All types of industries require laundering services, from healthcare and hotels to manufacturing and restaurants. There are laundering companies that serve all of these industries, using the same facilities, delivery trucks, and operating procedures for each. Outpatient healthcare centers, however, produce hazardous medical linens and laundry and therefore require specialized medical laundry services to minimize risks and maximize health, safety, and peace-of-mind for patients.

In this blog, we’re explaining why outpatient healthcare centers specifically need specialized laundering services and what an outpatient-specific laundering program should include for you.

At your outpatient facility, you spend most of your time ensuring that your patients, clinicians, and staff are taken care of. This involves a lot of different details, like managing operations, weekly schedules, and your medical laundry inventory program. Your medical laundry and linens are a vital part of your operation and play an important role in your patients’ experience, so they need to be managed well.

You know how important your existing medical laundry inventory program is, but the truth is, it’s not always at the top of your mind. For your outpatient facility to maintain patient satisfaction, you need a solid medical laundry program.

If the above scenario is all too familiar, keep reading, as we’ll review why your medical laundry inventory program doesn’t work—and how you can fix it.