Consolidated Laundry

History

Once upon a time.....the University of Washington Medical Center began doing their laundry in the basement of the medical center in 1959.

After Harborview Medical Center was placed under University of Washington management,  the laundry from their facility was combined with the University Medical Centers laundry.

In 1974 the U.W.M.C leased a building for the laundry on Pontius Street in downtown Seattle.

In 1975 Group Health Cooperative and the University of Washington formed a cooperative to share laundry/linen cost.

Frank Metheny joined the management of the Consolidated Laundry as the Director, in November of 1977.

The Laundry Board of Trustees decided in 1981 to build a new facility that would take care of the long term needs of the healthcare facilities being served.  A new facility was planned, constructed and opened in 1984.  

Consolidated Laundry  purchased and placed into operation,  one of the first successful, state of the art tunnel washer systems in the Northwest.

Group Health Cooperative built a new Eastside hospital that received service from this laundry to be followed later by the Kelsey Creek long term care facility and several specialty centers and clinics.

In 1986, Stevens Hospital started receiving their laundry/linen services at Consolidated Laundry.  This continued until February 1999.

Development of surgical pack service began in 1982.  It has become a major benefit to U.W. Laundry customers.  U.W. Laundry began making packs in the old plant and then expanded in the new plant.   The development of reusable high tech fluid resistant materials have improved the viability of reusable linen in the Operating Room and Labor & Delivery.   The use of reusable linen in the operating room has dramatically increased over the last 10 years due to its cost efficiency and technical superiority.

In 1985, the laundry began selling and monogramming lab coats.

In December 1997, the laundry contracted to supply linen service to the Veterans Administration facilities at American Lakes and in Seattle.

In August 1999, Emmanuel Okoye joins the laundry management team as Director, as Frank Metheny retired at the end of September.

In 1999 we purchased software that would create job tickets for orders, weighing orders on the way out to the customer and accurately invoicing with consistent methodology called Linen Master.   

In 2001 we installed a new embroidery machine.

In 2003 Group Health Cooperative left the cooperative.   The new Surgery Pavilion opened at the U.W.M.C. and we began supplying linen packs to them to reduce the time the nurses have to spend getting a patient ready at check in and saving time changing rooms out in the OR.  

The laundry began recycling plastic linen bags, in an effort to help the environment.

In 2004 the laundry faced interesting times as the new light rail system began construction and will cut through part of the University property and  the U.W. Surgical Pavilion went from 8 hours to 24 hour per day operation in April.  

In 2005 the laundry installed AquaRecycle that is recycling the water.  This new system saves not only water but also on gas, used to heat the water from the City of Seattle.   U.W. Consolidated Laundry received the Water Conservation Award 6/9/05 for Best Businesses for an environmentally sustainable tomorrow.

In 2007, we began the year with a new contract with Stevens Hospital in Edmonds.

In 2008, we have installed a backup switch to our electrical supply in the event of a power outage we will be able to continue operations through the emergency with a generator.  We have installed new and upgraded folding equipment, which will allow us to process more efficiently.  We have upgraded our old, big, and inefficient motors  and drives to smaller, more efficient drives on the ironers.

FUTURE:

Our vision for the future is to assist our customers  to effectively and efficiently manage linen resources and costs, while maintaining quality patient care and comfort.

INTERESTING FACTS

• In the last fiscal year we shipped over 10 million pounds of clean linen, which includes approx. 600,000 pounds of surgical pack linen for the operating rooms and Labor & Delivery units. 

• We provide service to clinics for  the University of Washington Physician Network systems.  We also supply service to the University of Washington Campus and UW Health Sciences.

• The major processing equipment, the tunnel systems, were upgraded and replaced in 1998 & 1999, which will insure that we will continue to efficiently process linen in state of the art equipment.

• One of the things that defines this laundry is that we purchase superior quality linen, process it efficiently and service our customers in a  very high quality way.

• The productivity of this laundry is equivalent to any of the best laundries in North America.

Home	Personnel	Operations	Education	Inventory	Safety	Emergency	Orders	Jobs