Why Reusable Textiles?

Karl Fillip, CEO Emeritus of Atlanta-based NOVO Health Services, cited the example of a regional hospital system client that realized a 53% savings with a full conversion from disposable isolation gowns to reusable gowns in mid-2020 after its vendor couldn’t supply the single use gowns it had used in the past.

NOVO used the provider’s actual adjusted patient day (APD) data and expenses for disposable gowns and for the first half of the year compared to the cost of reusable gowns, including processing costs based on 70 washes, during the second half. Hardly a normal year, Fillip said, but the analysis was insightful, nonetheless.

A highlight was the expense savings from the decrease in waste volume and the associated Environmental Services (EVS) expense to remove it. 

The hospital system’s vice president of vice president of supply chain and facility management said of the conversion. “We have found that converting to reusable isolation gowns has improved our bottom line. Reusable isolation gowns cost less than disposable ones, but the real savings comes in reducing labor and waste-stream costs. Less trash means less labor collecting trash.”

Meanwhile Jon McGuire, executive vice president of surgical linen suppler and NOVO subsidiary SRI Healthcare, said, “Hospitals can expect to see a 10% to 15% savings in the cost of use for a reusable surgical linen system versus a disposable system.”

“The supply chain is greatly enhanced by using local reusable products because it’s coming from down the street, not across the ocean,” said McGuire.

McGuire added that because surgical instruments are often wrapped up in soiled operating room linen, SRI recovers and returns $1.50 worth of instruments per procedure. Hospitals using disposable surgical linen often lose these items as they’re discarded along with the waste. One of SRI’s clients, UNC Rex Healthcare in Raleigh, North Carolina, conducts 40,000 surgical procedures a year, saving an estimated $60,000 in recovered surgical instruments, he said.

See Highlights from the cost comparison study: This information is provided courtesy of the American Reusable Textile Association (ARTA) The Business Case for Reusable Textiles