Case Study

CHU d’Orléans moves from personal to pooled uniforms with Polytex’s Garment inventory software

CHU d’Orléans cuts uniform costs by 60%, improves hygiene, efficiency and convenience with Polytex automated pooled inventory software

Background

Centre Hospitalier Régional d’Orléans (CHU d'Orléans) is a regional university hospital and public health center (EPS) located in Orléans, France. With over 1,300 beds and full treatment services, including an emergency room and specialties in surgery, oncology, gynecology, maternity, and pediatrics, it has a large professional staff who require hospital-issued uniforms.

Customer Needs

At CHU d’Orléans, staff were typically issued with personal garments with their names on each item. But this approach required excessive purchasing of uniforms (7-10 sets for each employee), with uniforms spending more time in lockers than being used. The hospital struggled with high rates of lost items, and in many cases, garments were not laundered as often as required, potentially falling short of hygiene standards. Furthermore, the manual distribution and management processes were time-consuming and slow, sometimes delaying employees’ ability to start work.

The hospital wanted a way to reduce costs and enhance efficiency around uniform management. While it recognized moving from personal to pooled uniforms was a necessary first step, it needed a system for effective garment inventory management.

The Solution

In 2016, CHU d’Orléans switched to pooled inventory management and implemented the Polytex automated uniform management system. It installed two D200 units for the automatic distribution of clean uniforms and two R310 units for the return of soiled items and began using the Polytex Total Care Manager cloud-based garment inventory software to monitor and control garment usage.

Results

By moving to a pooled system with Polytex’s uniform inventory management, CHU d’Orléans has gained significant cost savings and efficiencies and has boosted its workwear hygiene.

60% inventory reduction: Pooled inventory remains in use, even when staff are on leave or off duty, instead of sitting idle in personal lockers. The number of uniforms needed to provide full availability to staff dropped from 7-10 per person, to an average of 4. For every 1000 staff members, assuming that 25% are off-duty at any one time, this equates to just 3,000 outfits kept in inventory, down from as many as 10,000.
Immediate 50-70% cost savings: In the first year of using pooled uniforms and garment inventory software, the hospital saved €48,000 to €84,000 on the cost of buying uniforms alone.
Increased laundry efficiency: Laundry workers spend far less time marking, tagging, and bagging garments. Sorting and ventilation costs are eliminated. And refilling the dispensing unit is quicker than distributing to personal lockers.
90% less loss of uniforms: With employees required to return soiled uniforms before receiving clean replacements, and the ability to closely track individual items, CHU d’Orléans’ annual loss rate shrank from 10% to 1%.
58% higher workwear circulation: Garments are now washed an average of 77.5 times annually, instead of just 30 times. The higher circulation complies with RABC hygiene standards for laundry inventory management .
Enhanced hygiene: Clean items are kept in the closed Polytex dispensing unit, rather than on shelves, where anyone can touch them.
Worry-free access to the right workwear items: With the Polytex system, 24/7 availability of garment inventory is assured. Employees don’t waste time searching for garments or borrowing from colleagues, enabling them to start their shifts without hassle or delays.