The new machine has also eliminated a lot of mechanical effort. “The belt is attached to a programmer, and that programmer displays, by numbers, the items every compartment contains,” Florin explains. “If we run linen for Northwest Hospital, for instance, we can track their laundry at the press of a button.”

Besides Sinai and Northwest Hospital, the facility processes for Surgical Center of Baltimore, Pearlstone Retreat Center, and several smaller outpatient areas. Items include all hospital linen garments, sheets, blankets, patient gowns, scrubs, towels, surgical gowns and lab coats. “Everything except for bedspreads can be run through the ironers and small folders,” says Florin.

Boasting 50 laundry carts and two drivers for its rented laundry trucks, the laundry works seven days-per-week, 6:30-5:00 p.m. with 22 employees. “That number did not change after the installation,” Florin notes. “This was taken into consideration when we started to expand.”

The facility also hums with an 800-pound Braun washer, a 400- and 150-pound Milnor, as well as two 400-lb. Milnor dryers.

Further expansion is being considered. “I’m looking into adding another dryer, and a new picker, which unfluffs wet linen coming from the tunnel washer,” says Florin. However, he’s not worried about handling the current influx, even as the new Birthplace at Sinai birthing center is scheduled to bring a brand new line of scrubs and bedspreads to the laundry. In fact, Florin feels confident that the new system will handle everything well for years to come—with room for more poundage. “This is not reminiscent of an old, manual-loading washer,” he says. This is automated, he explains: no more bending now that the automated tunnel’s stacker brings linens to waist level. He says simply, “The employees are excited.”

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