Five linen and uniform service industry TRSA members and two associates are 2020 SafeTRSA Excellence Award winners, honored for their projects or achievements that produced or reflected safety gains due to support from top management, employee involvement, training or exemplary communication.

Linen and uniform service winners include:

NOVO Health Services, the Atlanta-based operator of four healthcare linen service laundries, demonstrates safety excellence through management leadership, employee involvement, worksite analysis, hazard prevention and control, and safety and health training. The company’s Safety and Health Manual includes 25 comprehensive policies for which specific training has been developed and presented as appropriate. An online program assigns monthly tasks with required completion dates, including training, fire drills, emergency action plan review, OSHA-required record review and submission, and local- and corporate-team audits specifying corrective action. From 2017 to 2019, NOVO’s total recordable injury and illness rate (TRIR) is 3.4 and days away from work, reassignment or transfer (DART) rate is 2.0; in 2019 alone, 3.0 and 1.7. Industrywide these figures are 5.2 and 3.5.

To Learn More https://www.trsa.org/news/tribute-trsa-members-safety-cultures-solutions/

RICHMOND, Va. and DUBOIS, Pa., Jan. 3, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Peter Farrell, Managing Partner of Tuckahoe Holdings, and David J. Stern, owner, president and CEO of Paris Companies, announce the merger of their subsidiary companies, NOVO Health Services and Paris Healthcare Linen Services, effective January 1, 2020.  The merged company will continue doing business as NOVO Health Services, and the Paris trade name will continue in use for an indefinite period.  Paris Uniform Services is not involved in the merger and will continue as an independent Paris company.

Both companies are leading providers of linen processing and management services in their regional markets.  Combined, the new NOVO Health Services becomes a supra-regional competitor, operating seven HLAC or TRSA hygienically clean processing facilities in the Eastern US.  Additionally, through its SRI Surgical business unit, NOVO operates three sterile processing facilities providing reusable surgical gowns, sheets and other textile products and stainless basins to the industry.

Commenting about the merger, Mr. Farrell stated, "This merger brings together the best of two regional leaders in the market to form a strong and sustainable company that can continue to grow.  We are pleased with the agreement and look forward to leading this industry for years to come."

The merger creates a combined management team to oversee the operations and growth of the company.  David Stern will serve as Chief Executive Officer of NOVO, effective immediately.  Karl Fillip will serve as CEO Emeritus and will continue as head of sales.  Karl Fillip II will serve as Chief Operating Officer.

"With this merger comes the opportunity to combine two exceptional senior leadership teams that will serve to strengthen our continued, long-term growth," added Mr. Farrell.  "David's experiences and proven success in the industry will guide this transition and the company as CEO, Karl Fillip has been and will continue to be instrumental as CEO Emeritus, and in addition to leading as our COO, Karl Fillip II is positioned to provide long-term continuity for our customers and employees that will ensure continued success for years to come."

Adds Mr. Stern, "I look forward to leading a new team in meeting the challenges and creating new opportunities in our great industry.

About Tuckahoe Holdings

Tuckahoe Holdings is a private investment firm.   Unlike private equity and other short-term investors, Tuckahoe operates with a permanent investment and people-focused philosophy and partners with business owners with compatible philosophies and values to build successful companies with empowered management, engaged employees and exemplary financial performance.  Tuckahoe has owned NOVO since 2015.

About NOVO Health Services

NOVO Health Services was founded in 2015 by Karl Fillip, a 40-year industrial and healthcare laundry veteran, who currently serves as its president and CEO.  NOVO is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia and provides healthcare linen services and reusable surgical solutions in a service area encompassing the Southeast and Midwest US.

How a comprehensive disaster plan helped NOVO Health Services maintain linen quality, availability and service during Hurricane Irma.

The Power of Planning

One of NOVO’s healthcare customers is a large hospital system in the state of Florida. NOVO won the RFP to supply the hospitals’ linen services, in part, by providing a comprehensive disaster plan.

Upon the award, NOVO immediately began preparing for potential hurricanes. The preparations came at the right time. NOVO had to implement its disaster plan just a few months later.

As Harvey raged against the Southern U.S., NOVO organized logistics and other efforts to ship more than $200,000 worth of clean, usable inventory from its South Florida facility to hospitals that needed imme­diate emergency relief in Louisiana and Texas. Then, within one week, South Florida became a target for its own hurricane system — Irma.

With Irma on its way, the local NOVO team began implementing its disaster plan and communicating reg­ularly with its suppliers and the area hospitals. Because it is often difficult to gain access to affected areas after a natural disaster, NOVO deployed two senior staff members — Cox and Chief Operating Officer Karl Fillip II — to Miami for pre- and post-hurricane support.

“Starting about six days out, we held daily confer­ence calls with all the affected hospitals,” Cox says. “We talked about their daily preparations and walked through what they were expecting and experiencing. We also provided daily email communications with status updates.”

As part of its disaster plan, NOVO committed to providing one to two par above normal inventory thresholds, depending on the item, for each hospital in the event of a hurricane. 

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ARCO/Murray recently completed renovations at a 44,150-square-foot plant operated by NOVO Healthcare Services in Madison, TN, according to a news release.

Improvements include: new plant ventilation, spot cooling and the installation of a Lavatec Laundry Technology tunnel and washer and dryers, plus a Miura boiler, the release said. The electrical design and installation work also included plans for adding finishing equipment that will be added later.

ARCO/Murray oversaw the entire project, including architectural and engineering design, permitting, building construction, all process mechanical work and final equipment connections.

Jon May and Dennis Bruce served as project manager and project superintendent, respectively, for ARCO/Murray on this project.

On the second day of TRSA’s Healthcare Conference, attendees got an opportunity to view a brand-new healthcare facility in action, when they toured the NOVO Health Services Plant in Madison, TN. The plant recently completed the first phase of its construction project, with the second phase to begin in January.

NOVO Health Services took over an industrial building that was originally a CD manufacturing facility and storage warehouse. After purchasing the warehouse, the company began converting the 46,000-square-foot facility into a commercial laundry plant. NOVO currently processes nine million lbs. per year at the facility and is adding an additional two million lbs. of work in January 2017. The second phase of construction will expand the building’s capacity to 24 million lbs. per year.

During the tour, conference attendees saw a variety of equipment in action, and got the chance to ask the manufacturers and NOVO executives questions about the equipment and how it works. For example, attendees saw a new kind of technology for tunnel washers, the patent-pending Smart Ultraviolet Light Advanced Oxidation System (SULAOS). Developed by Omni Solutions and tested at Textile Care Services, Rochester, MN, operators can install the system on any tunnel. It creates hydroxyl radicals that instantly kill a broad spectrum of microbes, including “superbugs” such as MRSA and C diff, said Omni Senior Vice President Andy Feldman.

In addition to eliminating microorganisms, Feldman said the SULAOS technology cuts demand for fresh water by 40% and allows for more reuse of water that’s already heated, thus saving natural gas. Paul Jewison, president/CEO of Textile Care Services, said the system’s combination of savings and microbial control represent an important step forward for launderers. “This system not only saves water and gas, greatly reduces rewash, and most importantly provides a measure of safety never before seen in our industry,” Jewison said. “The Omni system is always on, so even if other systems are not functioning optimally, the tunnel produces linen that’s completely sanitized.”

Goods move throughout the NOVO facility by way of an E-Tech rail system powered by the company’s eVue software. The wash aisle has a Lavatec 132 lb., 14-module tunnel washer, with a 40-bar press extractor. Five Lavatec TT745 292 lb. gas-fired dryers were in the plant. A small wash area was powered by Girbau Industrial equipment. The finishing area also featured two Girbau ironers and several other pieces of Girbau equipment.

Attendees also got a look at the boiler room, which featured a Miura 150HP steam boiler, as well as a Thermal Engineering of Arizona wastewater heat-reclamation system. The second phase of the project will add additional equipment to the facility, including a production-tracking system from Spindle, among other items. The project is being overseen by ARCO/Murray.