Two years ago, Goodwill Industries of South Florida launched one of the largest laundry businesses in the southeastern United States to serve the booming healthcare industry in the region and –in the process– support the Goodwill mission. The agency will now expand its operations with a partnership resulting in $1.1 million worth of new linens, 73 new jobs and 500 new linen carts.
In late December 2014, the Public Health Trust, which operates Jackson Health Systems, announced that it would award a $15 million; 3-year contract to the Miami Goodwill for the current initiative.
“We are excited to begin our partnership with Goodwill,” said Carlos A. Migoya, president and CEO of Jackson Health System. “As a public health system, we are thrilled to help support Goodwill’s mission of training, employment and job placement for people with disabilities.”
Starting this week, the Goodwill’s 50,000 square-foot plant will provide laundry services of bed sheets, top sheets, pillow cases, towels, patient gowns, scrubs and more to Jackson Health System locations, including the main campus and eight other Jackson health industry facilities along with existing customers, such as UM Health System. The addition of Jackson Hospital will add another nine million pounds of laundry annually.
“This contract, along with our current contracts, will continue to establish Goodwill as a leading force in the healthcare industry,” said David Landsberg, president and CEO of Goodwill Industries of South Florida.
“It will make us doubly proud of our unique management systems that deliver consistent quality, reliability and service at fair market price.”
Besides servicing the larger hospitals, the facility also features a parallel system of washing and drying equipment to process smaller contracts such as those from rehabilitation centers, neighborhood clinics, nursing homes, assisted living facilities and hospitals with fewer beds. This dual washing line helps maintain the same cost-effectiveness and efficient service enjoyed by high-volume customers.
The Goodwill laundry is a state-of-the-art, energy efficient and environmentally friendly plant. The facility was built with the latest technologies and innovations, and its advanced automation helps streamline production and provide a major competitive advantage in quality, efficiency and price.
The plant is energy efficient and features many safeguards – such as backup generators to ensure a smooth operation under adverse conditions, even during and after hurricanes. The laundry’s proximity to the Liberty City area will have the added effect of creating more than 200 jobs once it reaches its full operating capacity of 40 million pounds, helping a community whose unemployment rate is triple that of the entire Miami-Dade County.
