West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals Improves Scrubs and Medical Linen Inventory Management Across Two Sites

Background

West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust serves over 600,000 people. Its facilities include Watford General Hospital, the Trust’s main acute emergency centre, and St. Albans City Hospital, the elective care site providing outpatient, diagnostic, and surgical services and Hemel Hempstead Hospital. Watford and St Alban’s hospitals faced ongoing challenges in managing the supply and use of surgical scrubs, which directly impacted on staff satisfaction and operational efficiency.

medical linen inventory management by Polytex

Top five achievements

With the Polytex scrubs and medical linens management solution in place, the Trust quickly realized clear benefits:

  1. 100% availability of scrubs
  2. Greater control of scrubs usage
  3. Fast refills
  4. High rate of returns
  5. Improved staff satisfaction and comfort
Medical linen inventory management with the Polytex system

Customer Testimonials

Often, when someone went to get scrubs, they would take from the bottom of the pile, and the rest would end up on the floor. The Polytex system has completely gotten rid of that. Also, we don’t have staff hoarding scrubs in lockers or taking them home anymore.

Darryl Harber

Facilities Operations Manager, West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, UK

Customer Needs

The Trust needed a more reliable way to manage scrubs across its hospitals. At Watford General Hospital and St. Albans City Hospital, shortages, hoarding, and disorganized changing rooms were creating daily frustrations for clinical teams. Beyond convenience, staff accountability and better control over workwear hygiene and medical linen inventory were required to support safe and efficient hospital operations.

REQUIREMENTS

To address these issues, the Trust outlined several key requirements for a new solution:

  • Ensure 24/7 availability: Scrubs and linens had to be consistently accessible for clinical staff working around the clock.
  • Prevent hoarding and losses: The system needed to eliminate overuse, theft, and stockpiling in lockers.
  • Support high hygiene standards: Scrub distribution and returns had to be more orderly, with minimal handling to maintain cleanliness.
  • Streamline manual processes: Facilities teams required a way to reduce top-up calls and inefficient stocking processes.

The Solution

The Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals Trust installed a Polytex D200 PRO dispensing unit, R110 PRO return unit, and Smart Cabinet at Watford General Hospital. Soon after, it installed a similar set of Polytex machines at St Albans Hospital.

  • Centralized management of scrubs: The Trust facilities operations team uses Polytex Total Care Manager cloud-based software to manage all scrubs and medical linen inventory and distribution.
  • High capacity: Across both sites, around 10,500 items are dispensed every month.
  • Multi-department coverage: Units serve the main theatre departments in both hospitals
  • Efficient, easy processes: The machines provide quick access with individual user identification, supporting accountability and high return rates.

Results

The Polytex scrubs and medical linen inventory management solution delivered measurable operational improvements across the Trust’s Watford and St. Albans hospitals. Hygiene standards improved, as did satisfaction among clinical staff and the facilities management team.

100% availability
More than 1,100 hospital employees now have consistent access to scrubs and can choose pants and tops in different sizes.
Improved hygiene and tidiness
Controlled, hands-free dispensing keeps scrubs clean and eliminates changing room mess. Employees are allocated up to 2 sets of scrubs out at any one time, enabling on-the-go changes as needed. The scrubs remain nicely folded inside the machine.
Higher accountability, higher returns
Items are consistently returned through the designated units, ensuring accountability.
No more hoarding
Incidents of staff stockpiling or taking scrubs home have been eliminated, reducing unnecessary consumption.
Efficient operations
With full visibility into inventory and control over usage, the facilities team no longer gets frequent top-up calls. Restocking a dispensing unit with 600 items takes just 10 minutes, freeing the team for other tasks.
Improved staff experience
Organized changing rooms and always-available scrubs have raised overall satisfaction and comfort.