Employees at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute have diverted more than 14 tons of plastic from landfills through a new program to use canvas bags to hold and transport soiled linens.
In May 2018, John Guardiola, assistant director for environmental services at The James, and his team implemented the program. It has been implemented on floors 14-21, which have a total of 276 patient rooms with an average annual volume of 90,666 patient days.
The canvas bags provide many advantages over the previously used plastic bags. Linen bags travel through the hospital’s trans vac system (think laundry chute meets bank drive-through), an automated system to collect and transport soiled linens. The bags often reach a speed of up to 35 mph while in transit. While the single-use plastic bags often ripped, and needed to be replaced before completing one full use, the canvas bags are much more durable and can be sanitized and reused.
This program has also enhanced safety by reducing the exposure to patients, visitors and staff. With the plastic bags, staff had to collect the soiled linens that had fallen out as a result of tears and place them in a new plastic bag. Now, with the canvas bags, staff collecting and moving the canvas bags don't come into direct contact with the linens.
In fiscal year 2019, this program resulted in diverting 13.96 tons of plastic bags from landfills. The cost savings have also been significant. And while there's a cost to reprocess the linen bags, the program has resulted in $14,834 in savings in a given year.
Guardiola and his team are looking to expand this program to floors 10-12 at The James. Because of lack of existing storage space, his team purchased special storage units for this purpose. But beginning in March 2020, COVID-19 reduced the hospital’s overall occupancy by approximately 50% to protect patients with compromised immune systems from being exposed to the virus. Plans to expand the program are currently on hold.