March 2014
| Business World Magazine | 121
groups decided to continue forming what
they called cooperative laundries, so health
systems in an area or region could take ad-
vantage of shared laundry and linen services
in a cost effective and efficient manner. In
1968 a piece of legislation was passed that
authorized a 501 (C) 3 tax exemption for
joint endeavors by non-profit hospitals with
the exception of joint laundry services. The
very first cooperative healthcare laundry in
Boston, MA subsequently lost its previous
tax exempt status. This legislation was the
spark that kindled the idea for the first ex-
isting cooperative laundries to form an Asso-
ciation. Basically, the CEOs of those original
cooperative laundries communicated with
each other about operations, information
that they could share to help each other and
they decided to form an organization, which
became IAHTM. The original cooperative
laundry was located in Boston and there-
after Baltimore, Seattle, Madison and Los
Angeles. Numerous cooperative laundries
have since been formed throughout North
America.
Over the years, IAHTM grew in mem-
bership as more were formed throughout
Canada, and the United States. In the be-
ginning, the association really focused on its
members relative to equipment, linen and
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