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Tuesday, May 1, 2007
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Taken to cleaners Loss of BRHSC laundry service costly for St. Joe's Associate Editor The closing of the Brainerd Regional Human Services Center's laundry service resulted in higher laundry bills for the center's former customers.
Tim Folk, director of materials management at St. Joseph's Medical Center in Brainerd, estimated the hospital's laundry expenses have gone up about 15 percent since it had to switch to Lake Superior Laundry in Superior, Wis. Folk said that soon the hospital's laundry will be done a little bit closer - in Pine City.
Folk said the hospital had to purchase extra inventory of linens because of the distance to the new laundry facility and the possibility deliveries could be jeopardized by bad weather. After the first year, he said, he expected the increase would stabilize at about 11 percent.
The laundry at the site of the former state hospital at the junction of Highways 18 and 25 closed its doors in February. State officials said the facility's need for a laundry diminished as the resident population decreased over the years.
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Laura Villnow, a materials management employee at St. Joseph's Medical Center in Brainerd, rolled a cart of laundry to a storage room Monday. All of the hospital laundry now travels to Superior, Wis., and is picked up daily. Brainerd Dispatch/Nels Norquist
» Purchase reprints of this photo.
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Last winter, Mike Tessneer, chief executive officer of state-operated services of the Minnesota Department of Health, told the Dispatch the state facility's need for laundry service had diminished considerably since the site's population of clients decreased. Laundry, he said, was not part of the BRHSC's core function and the state had abandoned the large institutional model of health care services in favor of treating clients in smaller psychiatric hospitals.
The BRHSC laundry employed about 20 people - some part time and some full time. Former customers of the BRHSC laundry came clean recently about what they've done since the laundry at the state campus closed.
Jani Wiebolt, vice president of operations for St. Joseph's Medical Center, said the transition to an out of town laundry vendor has been smooth. She said that in addition to doing the hospital's laundry, Lake Superior does laundry for Brainerd Medical Center and Brainerd Lakes Surgery Center.
Curt Carpenter, housekeeping manager at Cragun's, now ships the resort's laundry to a St. Cloud company. He said the resort averaged sending out between 600 and 1,000 sheets, three times a week, when it was a BRHSC customer. The resort's laundry costs have gone up by a little bit, he said, but he wasn't certain of how much.
Carpenter said he was sorry to see the BRHSC laundry close.
"That operation was a really good service in the area," he said. "When you consider the poundage we do seasonally, there's no way Meyer's or Crystal Cleaners would be able to touch that."
Tom Baltz, property manager for the Village at Izatys, a time-share facility, also sends laundry to Lake Superior Laundry. He estimates his costs have gone up about 5 percent compared to last year.
"I didn't have any choice in the matter and believe me had that still been available I would have definitely stayed in Brainerd," Baltz said. "They were great to work with. They had it down to a science."
His facility generates about 1,500 pounds of laundry a month.
Baltz said Lake Superior Laundry will soon be operating a new facility at Pine Center, which is about a half-hour closer.
Capt. Jerry Negen, jail administrator for the Crow Wing County Sheriff's Department, said inmate laundry is being done by inmates at the jail annex facility at the state campus. When the new county jail opens, the county will be able to handle its laundry at that location, he said.
Sam Cote, whose family owns Nisswa's Camp Lincoln, is looking for a service to replace the BRHSC laundry before the June 1 opening of his camp.
"The state hospital laundry was a really good service," he said. "We had a very good relationship with them."
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