ALM Podcast

How to Recruit & Retain Employees

The complaint heard around the world in every laundry lately has been the lack of available workers. Every laundry but one.

The laundry at Carilion Clinic may have found the secret ingredient to not only retaining the employees they have but recruiting so well that they have sent potential workers to competitors!

Hear from Thomas Mantey, RLLD, CLLM, Laundry Operations Manager, and Don McMullen, HR Consultant, Clinical Staff Teaching, about the Carilion Clinic efforts with the immigrant community in Roanoke. 

To read the full article from ALM, please visit the ALM Industry Topics page.

COVID-19 in the Laundry

LYNNE SEHULSTER, PhD, M(ASCP) speaks with ALM Executive Director Linda Fairbanks to clear up some concerns and misconceptions about COVID-19 in laundry facilities. Please visit ALM's COVID-19 page for continually updated information for the textile care industry.

Lynne Sehulster has been with the CDC for almost 20 years, working as a Health Scientist in the Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion (DHQP) within the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID). Prior to her coming to CDC, she served as an infectious disease epidemiologist for 15 years at the Texas Department of Health (currently known as the Texas Department of State Health Services). Her current area of expertise focuses on environmental infection control, microbial inactivation, and transmission of infectious diseases. She has advised CDC and other federal and state health agencies, healthcare professionals, and the public on issues concerning environmental cleaning, sterilization and disinfection, healthcare laundry issues, prion disease epidemiology, and environmental management of emerging diseases. She is the coordinator of and contributor to the CDC/HICPAC “Guidelines for Environmental Infection Control in Health-Care Facilities” that was released in 2003, and has assisted federal colleagues and other entities in the development of their infection prevention guidelines.

She received her PhD and MS in Microbiology from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, completed a postdoctoral appointment in viral immunology at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston TX, and has her certificate as a Microbiologist with the American Society of Clinical Pathologists (M[ASCP]). She also serves as an Editorial Board member for the journals Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology and Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

How Laundries can Work with Hospitals to Ensure Joint Commission Compliance

Hospitals and laundries both benefit by working closely to ensure compliance with The Joint Commission, avoiding costly penalties and additional staff time to correct inconsistencies. 

In this episode, we talk with Nicole Grubich, RLLD, CLLM, executive director of West Michigan Shared Hospital Laundry, and John Wilson, CLLM, director of customer service and sales for United Hospital Services, about how to best work with your hospital customers to ensure they are in Joint Commission compliance.

Show Notes:

ALM members may access the Compendium of Healthcare Laundry Quality Guidelines on our website under Resources, Publications, Healthcare Guidelines. Non-members can learn more about the Compendium, including the full Compendium index, here:  http://bit.ly/2EhgzCc 

If you are an ALM member and wish to have an ALM presence during a future meeting with your staff or customers, please contact us and we will create a presentation to fit your unique needs.

Consistent Benchmarks for Competitive Analysis

If you don’t keep track of where you’ve been, where you are, and how you stack up, how will you get to where you want to be? Participation in sound benchmarking initiatives provides a roadmap to operational success. Learn how solid, compatible data can lead to improved efficiencies and superior quality.

In this episode, Kevin Martlage, senior consultant with .orgSource, talks about benchmarking in the laundry industry. Kevin’s commitment to enhancing teamwork and performance through intentionally transparent conversations and solutions is based on his more than 22 years of corporate and association experience. A result oriented professional, Kevin is a visionary leader with the ability to motivate and develop talent built on the cornerstones of communication, execution, and trust.

Show Notes:

Handouts from Kevin's presentation are available on ALM's Clean Show page.

Make sure to visit ALM's new benchmarking platform, LaundryMarks by ALM. 

Laundry & Linen Week: Why it Matters

In this episode, we talk to Liz Remillong, vice president of Crothall Laundry, as well as Anglea Skinner and Suzy Ward, both strategic account managers with Crothall, about how they use National Laundry & Linen Week to educate on linen utilization practices, as well as why Laundry & Linen Week matters to everyone across every part of the textile care industry.

Show Notes:

Visit ALM's National Laundry & Linen Week page: www.ALMnet.org/LaundryLinenWeek

Read ALM's blog post covering the history and purpose of Laundry & Linen Week.

ALM Reminders

Registration for ALM's Member Reception at The Clean Show is now open. 

Become Irresistible to Other Industries' Employees

In this episode, we speak to Deana Griffin, owner & president of The Griffin Group, Inc. (http://www.thegriffingroup.cc/), which specializes in recruiting for the rental uniform and textile industry, about what companies can do to attract employees who may not initially consider the textile industry for employment. Then, we speak to Johnny Williams, plant manager with Metropolitan Detroit Area Hospital Services, who worked in the auto industry for 22 years before making a successful transition to the textile care industry. He shares his thoughts on the best way for facility leadership to help those who are new to the industry.

ALM Reminders

Save the date for ALM's member reception at The Clean Show, Friday, June 21, from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at The Jazz Playhouse, located inside ALM's host hotel, The Royal Sonesta, in New Orleans. Live music, dancing, bourbon tasting, and cigars will be available, thanks to our generous sponsors, MIP Inc., Medline, Propeller Solutions Group, and Laundry Design Group.

Spore Contamination on Textiles: How Much is Too Much?

Dr. Lynne Sehulster retired from a 20-year career with the CDC in Atlanta. She was instrumental in helping the Healthcare Laundry Accreditation Council (HLAC) create their 2011-2012 standards and has been helping the laundry community by answering questions concerning microbiology and epidemiology. Dr. Sehulster is a regular contributor to ALM publications and will be speaking at ALM's Clean Show education session, Preventing Microbial Growth and Infection in Laundry Facilities.

Show notes:

The Chain of Infection most often includes: Organism, Reservoir, Portal of Exit, Mode of Transmission, Portal of Entry, and Susceptible Host. Dr. Sehulster makes the distinction of the Infectious Dose, because, in the case of linen, there will always be organisms present, unless it is a sterilized textile. Given that, for linen to be a danger to susceptible persons, there must be enough of that organism to present a link in the chain.

 

ALM Reminders

• Education sessions for The 2019 Clean Show are now available. Don't forget, current ALM members receive discounted admission to The Clean Show. 

OSHA Recordkeeping and Reporting: How to avoid fines in your facility

Barry Spurlock, partner at Crump Spurlock Attorneys of Law and safety instructor at EKU, talks about the differences between the OSHA reporting tools 300 log, 300A, and the 301 form. Learn how to avoid fines by ensuring your reporting and recordkeeping is fulfilling all OSHA requirements. You can't afford NOT to listen to this podcast!

Show notes:

OSHA Final Rule Issued to Improve Tracking of Workplace Injuries and Illnesses

ALM Reminders

• Current ALM members save on registration to The 2019 Clean Show
• Registration is now open for the Laundry & Linen College
• Make sure you're registered for fresh Magazine, ALM's complementary publication for ALL textile care management professionals.