Study on linen costs and utilisation in a tertiary care hospital

A sick person coming in the hospital gets tremendously influenced and soothed by the aesthetics or cleanliness of the surroundings and the linen. On the contrary, dirty linen tends to result in psychological dissatisfaction. The Linen and Laundry service is an important utility service which not only helps contain the hospital infections but also contributes to the image of the hospital. While it may not be an option that comes to mind for many, one place that savings can frequently be found is through linen management. Linen utilization is a near-invisible budget item, but it can painfully pinch already tight budgets. Having systems in place can help track and benchmark scrubs that are being stolen, trashed, or even hoarded. This data combined with your controls and staff education can help you manage your linen costs. Many hospitals had discovered that linen used in the hospital consumes approximately 2 % of total expenses. With this as Aim, a study was conducted to know the average linen consumption in a General ward and the ICU at a large tertiary care teaching hospital per day and the cost of disposed linen at the end of 6 month period. Observations of facilities, Procedures adopted of distribution, Flow pattern of work, and Overview of documents. In our study, the Average Length Of Stay of the General ward came out to be 7 days and, per bed per patient linen consumption was 4.487 kg/bed/patient. The Average Length Of Stay for the ICU came out to be 3 days and, per bed per patient linen consumption were 9.816 kg/bed/patient. The cost of linen washing per bed per patient of the ward and ICU was Rs. 56/bed/patient and Rs. 123 /bed/patient respectively.