Linen Management - by Saurabh Guha

1. CASE STUDY ON LINEN MANAGEMENT AT APOLLO HOSPITALS
USING BLUE OCEAN DATA SOLUTION (BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY)
- Name: Saurabh Guha
- Enrolment Number: 18012011096
- Batch: AB2

2. AGENDA
1. Apollo Hospital Introduction 7. The Main Challenge
2. Operational Problems at
Apollo Hospital
8. Blue Ocean Strategy
3. Process followed at Apollo
Hospital
9. Four Critical Factors
4. Linen Management at
Apollo
10. Examples of Blue Ocean
Strategy
5. Problems faced during Linen
Management
11. Six Path Frameworks
6. Cost Information 12. Summary

3. APOLLO HOSPITAL
Apollo Hospital, Bangalore is one of the flagship
units of Apollo Hospitals Group accredited by Joint
Commission International (JCI).
The hospital focuses on centers of excellence such as
cardiac sciences, neurosciences, orthopedics, cancer,
emergency medicine, and solid organ transplants,
besides a complete range of more than 35 allied
medical disciplines under the same roof.

4. OPERATIONAL PROBLEMS AT APOLLO
HOSPITAL
In 2013, Apollo Hospital spent around ₹ 5.1
million on the linen used in the hospital, about
67% was spent on washing alone. The doctors
believed that if managed optimally, they can
reduce the money spent on linen significantly.

5. PROCESS FOLLOWED AT APOLLO
HOSPITAL
The cost of managing linen (that is, the cost of buying new
linen and of washing) was around ₹ 5.1 million per annum
($1 = INR 60 in January 2014). They spent approximately ₹
0.286 million per month on washing alone.
The demand for linen was uncertain since many patients
demanded more linen than was assigned to their bed for
various reasons. To manage uncertain demand, Apollo
maintained a safety stock for linen, since non-availability
of linen could result in customer dissatisfaction.
The used linen was sent for different types of washing
depending on the stains on the linen. A few heavily-soiled
items of linen were discarded as they were not washable.

6. LINEN MANAGEMENT AT APOLLO
HOSPITAL
There is a Central Linen Room where all the linen was
stocked and distributed to various floors according to
the demand from all the floors/units.
Heavily-soiled linen was collected separately in a
yellow bag and thrown down the chute. Heavily-soiled
linen went through a special cleaning process to
ensure that it was cleaned and disinfected.
Linen was sent for washing every evening; it was
washed in the laundry and returned to the Linen Room
after two days (day + 2). The Linen Room maintained a
book to record the number of linen items sent out and
received.

7. LINEN USE CYCLE

8. PROBLEMS FACED DURING LINEN
MANAGEMENT
1. No established system to identify the number of washes before
discarding an item based on the recommended number of
washes for normal or heavily-soiled linen.
2. 0.28% of the used linen was discarded every day and about
40% of these discards had to be converted into pillowcases.
3. Daily discards occurred mainly because of heavy stains.
4. RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) cannot be
implemented in hospitals in India as these RFIDS are
costly.

9. LINEN OCCUPANCY INFORMATION (FOR EVERY 2 DAYS)
25%
25%
25%
25%
Occupancy
Day1 - Under Circulation
Day1 - Under Laundry
Day2 - Under Circulation
Day2 - Under Laundry
Each bed had a defined par count (2 bed sheets
and 1 pillow cover). The linen was changed
every morning and also immediately after a
patient was discharged. This increased the daily
usage, which was accounted in the additional
2% used by the hospital.

10. LINEN FLOW CYCLE

11. COST INFORMATION
0
50
100
150
200
Washing a unit of bed sheet Buying a unit of bed sheet Washing a pillow cover Buying a pillow cover
Cost Information of Linen Bedsheets and Pillow Covers
Cost in ₹ Variations

12. THE MAIN CHALLENGE
1. Apollo receives 250+ patients everyday and
the in-patients bed capacity is 300.
2. The linen could last up to approximately 70
wash cycles under regular wash; whereas the
life reduced to 45 wash cycles for heavily-
soiled linen.
3. RFID not used by Apollo Hospital as its costly.
4. There is a need to relate the occupancy of
inpatients to predict the number of bed sheets
and pillow covers required on a daily basis.
5. Apollo purchased linen only once in a year.
6. Dr Ananth Rao thought that they should
increase the frequency of purchase. However,
time between purchases should be at least 30
days to avoid too-frequent purchases.

13. BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY
It is called Blue Ocean Strategy (BOS) because it
provides managers a toolbox to create, identify
uncontested market space instead of competing in the
prevalent market with cut throat competition and
decreasing margins. BOS makes competitors irrelevant
& creates new consumer value propositions.
The cornerstone of Blue Ocean Strategy is - "Value
Innovation". Value Innovation emphasizes on both
Value and Innovation

14. FOUR CRITICAL FACTORS THAT MANAGERS AT LINEN APOLLO CAN USE
FOR VALUE INNOVATION
Buyer Utility
Price
Cost
Adoption

15. EXAMPLES OF HOW BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY CAN BE USED FOR LINEN
APOLLO CASE STUDY
Eliminate
Raise
Reduce
Create

16. SIX PATH FRAMEWORK LINEN APOLLO SHOULD FOLLOW
Industry
Strategy
Group
Target
Segments
Value
Proposition
Functional
Orientation
Time

17. SUMMARY
My Case Study described the use of linen at the Apollo hospitals. Dr
Ananth N Rao, head of quality at the Apollo hospitals thought that
the expense of linen management could be optimized using Blue
Ocean Data Solution which may have a significant effect on the
hospital's bottom line.

18. THANK YOU
Saurabh Guha
18012011096
Batch: AB2