healthcare textiles & laundry
healthcare textiles & laundry
By Gregory Gicewicz
Offshoring and the Fragile State of U. S. Healthcare Laundry: A Wake-Up Call
Since the 1970s, the United States has systematically moved its manufacturing and industrial capacity offshore. Sold under the banner of globalization and free trade, this strategy enriched certain elite groups— executives, financiers, and political allies— while hollowing out America’ s industrial strength.
Nowhere is this more dangerous, and less talked about, than in the world of healthcare laundry.
I’ ve spent years in this field, and I can say with conviction: the ability to safely process, monitor, and deliver clean, infection-free healthcare linens is not a peripheral function. It is critical infrastructure. It impacts infection rates, patient outcomes, hospital safety, and even national preparedness. Yet, like so many other in dustries, this sector has not escaped the consequences of America’ s offshoring obsession.
The Bigger Picture: How Offshoring Undermined Us In the 1990s and early 2000s, trade deals like the North American Free Trade Agreement( NAFTA) and China’ s entry into the World Trade Organization( WTO) made it easier for U. S. companies to outsource production to countries with lower labor and environmental standards. Promises of cheaper goods, economic growth, and innovation were made. But here’ s what we actually got:
● Thousands of closed factories
● Entire communities decimated
● A loss of hands-on technical know-how
● Critical sectors of the economy, including healthcare supply chains, now dependent on geopolitical rivals
The Impact on Healthcare Laundry You might think healthcare laundry was spared— after all, it’ s local, right? Not quite. Here’ s what actually happened:
Commoditization of linen Linens became“ just another expense,” leading hospitals to source cheaper goods from overseas. Quality dropped. Durability fell. Infection control took a back seat to cost savings.
Vanishing domestic mills Once a robust backbone of textile innovation and resilience, domestic mills were shuttered or sold off. Now we rely heavily on imported healthcare linen products— most of which are not manufactured under infection prevention standards aligned with U. S. patient safety requirements.
Loss of emergency readiness COVID-19 revealed our vulnerability. Hospitals scrambled for personal protective equipment( PPE), linens, and isolation gowns— because we no longer made them here. The U. S. couldn’ t produce enough even in a crisis. That’ s not a supply chain problem. That’ s a national security failure.
Operational fragility With fewer laundries left— many consolidated under large national chains— regional outages or labor disruptions can bring an entire hospital system to its knees.
Dependence on foreign equipment Even the equipment and replacement parts used in healthcare laundry processing— washers, dryers, press systems, automation controls— are often sourced from overseas. A supply chain disruption in Asia or Europe can suddenly halt laundry operations here in the U. S. This adds another layer of vulnerability to a system we count on for daily hospital safety.
Who Championed the Offshoring
Agenda?
● Corporate executives, who viewed laundry and linen as costs to be slashed, not systems to be protected
● Wall Street, which rewarded cost-cutting and penalized long-term resilience
● Politicians on both sides of the aisle, who favored trade liberalization without investing in domestic capacity or standards
● Global procurement consultants, who reduced linen selection to a spreadsheet line item, blind to clinical outcomes or infection risk
The Case for Bringing It Back
We must reframe healthcare laundry as critical infrastructure, not a back-office function. That means:
● Rebuilding domestic supply chains for healthcare textiles— from raw materials to finished goods
● Investing in domestic laundry facilities with the capability to meet pandemic-level demands
● Raising infection prevention standards, not lowering them to match global suppliers
● Certifying healthcare linen programs
The ability to safely process, monitor, and deliver clean, infection-free healthcare linens is not a peripheral function. It is critical infrastructure. It impacts infection rates, patient outcomes, hospital safety, and even national preparedness. Yet, like so many other in dustries, this sector has not escaped the consequences of America’ s offshoring obsession.”
through independent, standards-based review— not just self-attestation or price-based contracts
● Educating hospital leadership on why linen matters— and how it connects directly to patient safety and risk management
Reindustrializing with Purpose
The decision to offshore manufacturing was not fate— it was a choice. And we’ re living with the consequences. In healthcare laundry, that choice has left hospitals vulnerable, patients exposed, and our system fragile in the face of crisis. But we can choose differently now. Bringing back manufacturing isn’ t about nostalgia. It’ s about national resilience, infection control, and the dignity of work. And in the case of healthcare laundry, it’ s about saving lives— quietly, behind the scenes, every single day. We just need the will to do it.
Gregory Gicewicz is the president and CEO of Compliance Shark, a business compliance platform, as well as past-president of the Healthcare Laundry Accreditation Council( HLAC). He is the author of the new book‘ Clean Linen Saves Lives’ available on Amazon and may be reached at: gregory @ complianceshark. com
38 • www. healthcarehygienemagazine. com • jul-aug 2025