At the present time, the laundry at Montgomery Meadows is more than large enough to handle 100% of the laundry needs of a building twice the size of the existing facility.

Currently, all of the non-personal laundry is sent out to a commercial laundry service, and only personal laundry of the residents is done in-house. However, 100% of the labor necessary for the pick-up and delivery of all laundry to and from the nursing units is included in the present budget. Thus, the only costs associated with analyzing the difference between sending the commercial laundry out and doing laundry within the facility, is the actual cost of labor to process the laundry and the associated supplies and utilities.

The other problem that must be addressed is one of aesthetics: having to roll all the laundry carts, along with any associated odors, past the main lobby. This problem cannot be resolved with the laundry in its present location without some extensive renovations, which would include constructing a new elevator. From a cost standpoint, it might be a break-even situation to construct a new laundry addition to the building on the main floor, or to utilize a portion of an existing resident wing if the Skilled Nursing beds are replaced with new wings.

In 2001, Montgomery Meadows out-sourced 196,356 pounds of commercial laundry at $0.32 per pound. The total cost was $62,834.14.

One person can wash and dry approximately 200 pounds of laundry per hour. Considering only a five-day workweek, there would only be an additional 1,000 pounds of laundry per day. This means that all of the out-sourced laundry can be washed and dried with only one additional person in the laundry at a cost of less than $30,000 per year.

The cost of laundry supplies runs approximately $0.022 per pound of laundry, or an annual cost of approximately $4,400.00.

The cost of utilities is approximately $0.03 per pound of laundry, or an annual cost of approximately $6,000.00

The total annual savings would be in excess of $20,000.

The 2002 Income and Expense Statement contains $70,000.00 for disposable linens. We believe that with a full service laundry operating at Montgomery Meadows most of these disposables can be substituted with cloth for an additional savings of at least $30,000.00, bringing the total operational savings to at least $50,000.00.

We also recommend that if the laundry is relocated, that two 75 pound and two 50 pound washers be purchased for an estimated cost of $40,000.00.

Montgomery Meadows has recently purchased new dryers that can easily be relocated to the new laundry.