248 | Business World Magazine |
Aug/Sep 2013
external operations too. Harper says that
means routinely meeting with linen inven-
tory managers from the healthcare facilities
served by the laundry, educating them about
processes relating to the care of their linens,
and involving them in the process of identi-
fying issues or solutions that would lead to
improvements in the service. “We’re always
looking for ways to make things better for
customers,” says Harper. “We talk a lot about
the big ‘W’ – the whatever and whenever in
what we can do to help…. And part of our
job is to educate customers and help them
solve problems. We’re all about how to make
tomorrow better than today is … and we may
not do everything perfect, but we’re trying
to.” Grubich adds, “Every problem forces
a different solution. And sometimes, each
hospital thinks that they’re different per se,
so they think their needs are different… but
across the board, they recognize they’re part
of a co-op, and there is a cost-savings and de-
cision-making process as part of a co-op, but
at the end of the day, our services all come
down to serving patients, and it the satis-
faction of patients which really reflects the
worth in our services.”
In terms of the future, Grubich believes
there are opportunities to serve more health-
care facilities within its Michigan to Indi-
ana coverage area. Beyond the conventional
hospitals and clinics WMSHL has served,
