Water recycling at the Nova Scotia Hospital Central Laundry.

A water recycling system was installed at the Nova Scotia Hospital Central Laundry in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia in the spring of 2014. The consequent reductions in the consumption of water and steam at this facility have been measured over a 20-month period and are presented here in nominal units and as a financial analysis. Cumulative savings over this period have been calculated to be $351,567, representing a 53% annual return on investment after accounting for annual operating and maintenance costs.

Cost-benefit analysis: patient care at neurological intensive care unit.

Modern quality definition relies on patient centeredness and on patient needs for particular services, continuous control of the service provided, complete service quality management, and setting quality indicators as the health service endpoints. The health service provided to the patient has certain costs. Thus, one can ask the following: "To what extent does the increasing cost of patient care with changes in elimination improve the quality of health care and what costs are justifiable?" As stroke is the third leading cause of morbidity and mortality in Europe and worldwide, attention has been increasingly focused on stroke prevention and providing quality care for stroke patients. One of the most common medical/nursing problems in these patients is change in elimination, which additionally affects their mental health.

Microfibre barrier laundry adds value.

London's Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust has installed a complete barrier laundry system from Electrolux Professional at its St Thomas' Hospital location for specialist washing of an estimated 7,000 microfibre cloths and 5,000 microfibre mops each day from both the St Thomas' and Guy's Hospital sites. Since the installation, as Electrolux Professional national account manager Kurt Fryer reports, the "cost-effective" equipment's high performance has seen laundry staff achieve a significant increase in productivity.

Patient activity found to drive linen costs.

As the total cost of textile replacement, processing and in-facility distribution approached $1.4 million per year, the University of Arkansas Medical Center turned to a risk-sharing program offered by Medline Industries. So far, the change has resulted in savings of $516,000. Materials management director Gary Dollar explains how the program is working now.

Hospital saves $1 million by outsourcing laundry.

Thirty-five percent of hospitals nationwide are outsourcing laundry services, according to the Textile Rental Services Association. Pennsylvania Hospital cut its cost per pound of laundry from 61.5 cents to 46 cents, saving $1 million in its first year of outsourcing. Outsourcing also brought the hospital better inventory control, more efficient delivery, and fewer complaints about missing items.

Capitated linen management a 'no-brainer' for hospitals.

In their efforts to cut costs under managed care, are hospitals and health systems overlooking obvious candidates for capitation? Here's how one provider put some dollars to its bottom line with a capitated linen services agreement.

St. Joseph teams up wih EPA for big energy savings.

U.S government to the rescue? An energy savings program with the U.S Environmental Protection Agency is saving big bucks for plenty of health care facilities around the country. A good example is St. Joseph Hospital in Lancaster, PA, which is saving an estimated $175,000 each year from new lighting fixtures alone. And that's just the beginning. Here's the story, plus details on how you can tap into this voluntary program.