 |
 |
An Overview of Today’s Underpads
Americans over 65 make up over 12.4 percent of the population. With many living longer and requiring long-term care, the use of incontinent products is skyrocketing.
As featured in the “Laundry Today” Journal (May 2008)
Underpads haven’t changed much in appearance over the last few decades. However, there has been a change in the way reusables are perceived vs. disposables when considering the environmental impact of disposables.
Underpads mostly retain the same composite i.e. face, soaker and vinyl layers and remain fairly standard in size i.e. 34 x 36. Although in some cases, they have been reduced to 30 x 36. Pads have improved with new fabrics, chemical treatments and construction and the price and performance has changed.
MIP has been in the international underpad market for over 30 years. They produce hundreds of products of various weight and size combinations. Aviyam Friedman, VP operations, feels that the overall underpad market is up lately.
“The most demanded product depends on the market and customer”, says Aviyam Friedman. MIP’s best selling product, Aurorra, is one of their higher end products that sells on durability and the ability to process in an energy efficient manner. “It’s energy efficient because of its unique synthetic surface and it takes about 40% less drying time that traditional cotton based products,” he says.
As the underpad market has matured, Aviyam notes that there are more options on both the high and low end of the cost spectrum. “It’s interesting in our business that our biggest volumes are at the two ends – the high and low with less in the middle.” Looking to the future he adds, “I think the future of the market will be driven by the economics of the time.”
Phoenix Textile Corporation has been a linen supplier to the long term care market for over 20 years, and they are now a major supplier to the acute care market. According to VP of Operations, Gene Rodgers, a recent survey based on certain raw material sales estimates the reusable incontinent market to be approximately a $74 million dollar industry. It has also been reported that while the adult reusable diaper market represents less than a 5% (and shrinking) share when compared to disposables, the reusable underpad market has the lion’s share in acute care and especially the long term care marketplace.
Rodgers says that at Phoenix, a continuous search for new fibers, fabrics, processes and technology is always a prime objective to serve their customers, the industry and the environment. Comfort, performance and economy are considerations that go into product development strategy.
He cites the “PebbleBeach” pad as an example of Phoenix’s forward thinking. “We were the original developer of the “single ply vinyl underpad technology,” he says. “We incorporated a hydrophobic face with a hydrophilic soaker, and bonded them all together with a durable vinyl waterproof barrier. With its durability and reduced drying time (energy savings), it remains on of our most popular pads with the hospital market.”
“Healthcare customers are forced to deal with unrelenting cost containment pressure,” says Richard Stewart, VP of Product Management at Standard Textile. His firm has met those concerns by focusing on improved product performance through the introduction of the latest fiber and fabric moisture management technology. Standard Textile underpads such as the ComPly or Integrity products now contain capillary surface materials and “wicking enhancement.” The former are groups of synthetic fibers that are extruded to have a novel cross section, which means more surface area and channels whereby liquids can be moved. “Wicking enhancement” is a key performance attribute that allows fluids to spread out over a surface. Standard has also incorporated stain resistance chemistry.
“It’s existed for many years but the technology has improved to prevent the stain from sinking in without being totally liquid repellent,” says Stewart. He notes that disposable manufacturers are no so much into fiber technology and use SAPs, super absorbent polymers. These are chemicals that can absorb hundreds of times their own weight but can’t release it once they’ve absorbed it – a definite disadvantage.
Ken Tyler, VP of government operations for Encompass LLC and ARTA board member, believes that more customers are turning to reusables precisely because of those reasons. He sees the main push in reusables from the nursing field. “That’s because reusables once demonstrated to the clinical side of a facility, strongly outweigh a disposable in terms of comfort and safety issues, i.e. Bedsores,” he says. “When you throw in the cost of disposing and storing a disposable product, the cost analysis is clearly in favor of reusables.”
A 2006 side-by-side cost analysis conducted by Encompass found that there were savings of $246,545 after one year using the MIP “Aurorra” reusable underpad versus a disposable. The “Aurorra” boasts a warp-knit surface to withstand numerous washes, stain-resistant properties, a super absorbent soaker for quick wicking and maximum fluid containment and an impermeable heavy weight barrier for leak protection.
At Cedar Village, a long-term care facility outside Cincinnati, Ohio, Barb Bowen is director of Environmental Services and oversees 160 healthcare residents and 100 assisted living clients.
“We use underpads for anyone who is incontinent,” she explains. “Seventy-five percent of our residents use them.” The pads are placed under patients’ backsides for incontinence and under their shoulders and head for feeding issues. They’re also used to position and lift residents.
“The pads today have less cotton in them now on the top and have more absorbency – they dry more quickly and don’t stain,’ says Bowen. “They pull a lot of the incontinent fluids away from the resident and leave the top layer less wet too.”
Over her 30-year career in long-term care, Bowen has used both reusable and disposable underpads and has always preferred the former for feel, comfort and size and their longevity.
At Cedar Village, once a pad has been used at least 100 times, even beyond the point of having their wings trimmed off to make them 30 x 30, they are handed over to maintenance for greasy jobs.
“They can use it as a drop cloth,” says Bowen. “We also give them to our housekeeper to set on carpers or, if we have a stack, we give them to pet owners. The uses go on and on.”
By Aviyam Friedman, V. P. Operations & MIP Inc. staff
|
 |
Incontinence Pads and Google
No one is exactly sure of when the reusable incontinence pad was born, but it was somewhere around 30 years ago. Regardless of the exact date, it is clearly a mature product, in a mature market. Google, founded in 1998, is not a particularly mature service operating in two very mature markets- more about that below…
It may seem strange to be making a comparison between these two seemingly unconnected products. They are both, however, products or services that operate in very mature industries; healthcare textiles and information storage and retrieval. Given the media attention, new and innovative Google search garners vs. the relative backwater healthcare textiles resides in, it is easy to think that there is little room for innovation and differentiation in the more staid business of textile rental. Clearly, it would be silly of us to try and convince the readers of this article that we work in a business environment similar to Google, but given that Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information, which for centuries was also the mandate of the great libraries of the world. It is not impossible to make the statement that no matter what the industry or endeavor, there is always room for innovation and new approaches.
We would like to tell the history of a new approach to business in our own company and how it relates to the incontinence pad. With this small story, we will try and inspire our whole industry to look for innovation and renewal. If it can be done with the incontinence pad, it can be done anywhere.
The reusable incontinence pad was created about 30 years ago as an innovative change to what had been the traditional bed make-up of the time. Introduced by us and companies like Gericare, Dundee Mills and others, it was a new concept in how to make up a bed and deal with incontinence. It was truly an innovation that met a need and offered great advantages to its users. 30 years later, the product has continued to grow in popularity and is now no longer the specialty product it once was. This fact does not mean there is no room for improvement. Just as the information that Google presents is not their own creation or in most cases new, nor does the incontinence pad have to be entirely new to bring innovation to our industry. In its 30 years of life, the incontinence pad has seen several innovations such as the introduction on synthetic materials, anti-microbial additives, and new methods of holding the various layers together. However, even with all these changes, the product has continued to become a commodity item for both laundries and the healthcare facilities. It is our belief that there is still room for innovation if the right methods are employed; innovation that brings real value to the users of a product, not only by helping the users, but by strengthening the entire supply chain of that product.
MIP’s re-introduction to a new concept of innovation started 3 years ago when we began to investigate how to revitalize our strategic planning process and hence our company. This new way to approach our strategy started to become clear to us when our senior management team spent a day in a workshop with an anthropologist we had hired. She gave us a crash course on how to use anthropological techniques to observe humans in action. Not only would they be in action, but that action would take place in our own facility, our customer’s facilities and our customers customer’s facility. This may not seem like the traditional approach to strategic planning, but then again we were trying to be anything but traditional. From this session and the half dozen observational field trips our senior and middle management went on, the idea gelled that the key to our future success lay in a deep understanding of our customers, and the environment they live in. As anthropologists attempt to understand human evolution by piecing together disparate pieces of information, we too would need to build products and services that were based on information that came from many sources, and by observing how our customers and our products interacted with their environment. In this case, the environment was the healthcare facility and the laundry that processed the incontinence products, and other healthcare linen.
An opportunity is born
During our observations of the environment around us, all the information we gathered was regrouped under a few major themes. Then, within each theme, various options for strategies to enhance the experience of our customers was mapped out. Just as the rapid expansion on the World Wide Web created almost endless amounts of information that were impossible to catalogue led to the opportunity that was taken advantage of by Google, we realized that time and a changing environment had created an opportunity for us to innovate with the underpad. What we discovered was that during the ongoing commoditization of the underpad, the changing needs of both service providers and healthcare facilities were no longer being well met by the majority of the products we were providing. In our case the need of service providers became clear when one of our customers, Angelica Textile Services, launched its own strategic review and refocused their efforts in the initiative titled: “Delightful Service through Innovation”. It was clear to us and to them that the incontinence pad that they had been providing successfully to their customers would no longer cut it. No one was “delighted” with the product. The existing product was a very serviceable product that we had been supplying Angelica for quite a while with no complaints, but it was not delighting anyone. They needed to change the product they served from an acceptable textile product to a high performance care item. It was MIP’s challenge to help Angelica do this while simultaneously dealing with skyrocketing energy prices. With the development and introduction of our Aurorra underpad, we were able to meet what at first seemed like conflicting requirements. In fact, by observing our customer in action using the anthropological tools we had been taught, we learned about many accepted practices and processes that should not be acceptable. Staining leading to high rewash, lint buildup, premature loss of product life were all parts of the environment that were accepted because they had always been there. As well, even if a feeling of quality care wasn’t enhanced and even if it detracted from it, an underpad that worked on the bed was the norm and so it was accepted. Keeping all of this in mind, Aurorra was a valuable innovation, the result of a few well thought out and coordinated changes. Our own innovations may not be of the tidal wave proportion that Google is, but seeing the ripples in our own pond brings satisfaction nonetheless.
It is our belief at MIP that all companies and members of our community can succeed by innovating in various ways and areas, and that, although at the ripe old age (by industry standards) of 30, the underpad is far from seeing the end of its existence. As the environment in which we work continues to change, and the needs and desires of our customers continue to evolve, opportunity for the evolution of the products and services we all provide will always be there. None of the organizations in existence today pioneered the use of textiles in healthcare and industrial applications, just as Google did not invent the concept of sorting and retrieving information. It is how we approach the endeavors we are involved in that makes all the difference.
By Aviyam Friedman, V. P. Operations & MIP Inc. staff
|
 |
1, 2, 3...Slide!
It comes as no surprise that, over the past few years, many healthcare facilities have implemented no-lift policies.
As featured in the "Directions" newsletter published by Complete Purchasing Services (January 2007).
In 2003, a report published by the Canadian Center for Occupational Health and Safety indicated that over 50% of lost-time injuries to nurses were due to back, neck and shoulder injuries! In order for our care personnel to be able to dedicate their time to the well-being of our residents, it is crucial that we consider ways of keeping them free of harm and simplifying their daily tasks.
Health care personnel are highly resourceful and will create their own methods to reposition residents in bed as easily as they feel possible. It is not uncommon for them to use a draw sheet or an incontinence underpad to do so; not uncommon, but not recommended! These products, although they do help to some extent, are not designed for such a specific purpose and will often lead to unnecessary efforts and possible injuries to the caregiver.
Having recognized that manual resident repositioning exposes caregivers to such adverse injuries, there was a clear need to develop a low-friction microfibre slider sheet allowing caregivers to safely and easily perform resident handling tasks without putting unnecessary physical strain on their bodies. Seeing as patient lifts were already being used in most hospitals and long-term care homes due to an Ontario Health funding program, it became clear that the solution had to be an economical and appropriate one; necessary only for situations when quick and safe repositioning in bed was needed and transferring was not an issue.
Developed with the help of ergonomists, we have ensured that proper positioning methods could be applied and that it would address safety concerns for both caregiver and resident. The MIP Slider Sheet (PTD-5) consists of a central microfibre backing and a twill surface that extends itself into lateral flaps. It has been designed with a low-friction backing to ensure ease of use and maximum “slide” during repositioning. In addition, the breathable microfibre backing and comfortable twill surface will eliminate any heat accumulation and deliver maximum comfort for your residents.
The PTD-5 stays on the bed at all times. The resident rests on a large surface that covers their body from the neck area to mid-thigh to ensure that they are safely supported during repositioning. When not in use, side flaps are tucked under the mattress to keep the positioning device securely in place under the resident. Those same flaps are untucked when the need for repositioning occurs. Their generous sizing allows for comfortable manipulation and will conform to your facility's protocols for repositioning residents. Its ultra-thin profile will not affect the performance of pressure relief mattresses.
When looking at various options for positioning devices, it is also important to consider your facility’s priorities. For example, should infection control be of critical importance in your daily life, it is strongly suggested to use a positioner that remains on the bed, for use by only one resident before being sent to the laundry. The one resident/one slider ratio significantly reduces any possibility of cross contamination. In addition, it eliminates staff-time spent searching for positioners that are stored in the linen closet, the possibility that there may be none available when needed, and the uncertainty that the product has been incorrectly disinfected or laundered between residents.
As the need for safer work methods increases, the MIP Slider Sheet (PTD-5) is the most economical and efficient method for repositioning residents whilst addressing additional infection control and wound care concerns.
|
 |
Laundries Can’t Live on Price Alone
Determining a product’s true value requires a focus on quality and processing costs too.
As featured in the Textile Rental magazine (April 2006).
In our lifetime, we have tended to take for granted the constant rise in the cost of living. It has affected us in our personal as well as our professional lives. We have accommodated it naturally by trying to find economical alternatives to the products we buy.
In the case of institutional laundries, we have tended to seek the cheapest possible product to be cost competitive and to satisfy customer budget concerns. As a result, textile manufacturers generally have had to “commoditize” more and more of their items to stay the supplier of choice. Especially now, as we face increased competition from lower-wage countries, what once were top-tier products now need to be re-evaluated to address the limited budgets and numerous demands of institutional laundries.
Price of penny pinching
This drive toward cost cutting already has started a downward spiral that ultimately can lead only to negative results. This is true not only for distributors and manufacturers who are competing against one another, but also for laundries striving to meet quality standards for the healthcare facilities they serve.
In the end, the patient or resident, who is the true customer, will wind up “paying for” the repercussions of this penny-pinching practice. Sooner or later, that patient will be someone we care about. It may even be you or me.
Spend your ‘energy’ on saving energy
Recent natural disasters - such as the tsunami in Southeast Asia, earthquakes in India and Pakistan, a devastating hurricane season in the United States - have resulted in dramatic increases in energy prices, sometimes by as much as 40%. While the United States has experienced severe energy crises before (who can forget those long lines at gas stations in the early 1970s), the crisis now taking shape has a new look to it. First, it will most probably last much longer, not just a handful of months or years. Second, its impact extends around the globe, not just across a few countries.
We all know that lowering the quality of the products we offer ultimately creates profound customer dissatisfaction. By the same token, the increasing costs associated with products that our customers know and love can lead to a similarly negative reaction.
Consider this guiding principle for the industry’s price/quality dilemma: The true cost of a textile product is not its actual purchase price but its processing cost. The role of the manufacturer or distributor of reusable textile products is to provide products that help our laundry customers save money by maximizing the cost-efficiency of the washing/drying processes.
That’s why it’s important to spend our “energy” - pun intended - on finding and creating quality products that can be processed faster and more efficiently, and last longer. Such products are affordable not only due to low cost per use, but also for the decreased labor costs associated with them.
In an article titled “Customized laundry solutions help hospitals wring out savings,” published in the December 2004 Healthcare Purchasing News, Kim Shady, national sales manager for UniMac, Ripon, WI, said that proper equipment is the key to enhancing staff efficiency: “Labor is the laundry’s biggest operating expense, so it’s important that systems have higher load capacities and can lower drying and cycle times to make the most of staff’s time.’’ While she was referring here to capital equipment, our role as textile suppliers is to help the laundry industry by developing cost-effective solutions that can help them avoid much more substantial investments.
Stop, look and listen to customers
The onus is on us to understand what’s going on in the healthcare industry by walking the corridors of our hospitals and nursing homes, and having discussions with all types of healthcare workers. How absorbent must bed pads truly be? What are the main expectations of bed linens? By truly understanding end user needs, we can help laundries provide the best product: one that can be processed efficiently, minimize energy costs and keep their customers satisfied.
Healthcare needs constantly evolve. What we perceived as benefits just five years ago may not be even close to today’s true needs. Given the meteoric rise of disposable incontinence-care products, specifically, briefs, and their limited absorption capacity, the need for ultra-absorbent underpads has changed as well. End user needs must be constantly re-evaluated. As suppliers, we must keep an eye on the evolution of linen use in facilities. We must offer useful input when laundries decide to make important purchases.
Conducting focus groups can help us keep a finger on the pulse of today’s needs and anticipate future ones. We must listen carefully and not only hear what’s being said, but also analyze it to understand the concerns expressed. We constantly hear of the need for more economical products, but we must remember that lowering the purchase price alone may not truly help. In fact, it could backfire on us if customer satisfaction dwindles as a result. Put another way, the word “economical” typically can be better translated to “cost-effective.”
Innovative solutions focus on process
We must dare to be different and present alternative solutions not only based on a cheaper purchasing price. If a “lower selling price” is the only battle we choose to fight, most of us - suppliers, as well as laundries - will end up losing. Instead, we need to present products that offer advantages over what is currently in use. Ideally, these qualities should benefit laundries as well as the facility using the product.
For example, better stain-release properties can eliminate or substantially reduce the number of rewashes. Such stain-release products not only help laundries keep their costs down, but also enhance staff efficiency where stains on linens or uniforms can delay procedures such as changing bed sheets or getting dressed for the workday.
The drying process is another area for improving cost-efficiency. Products that dry faster allow laundries to dry more loads per shift. In smaller laundries, this can help avoid “bottlenecks” stemming from a slow drying process.
Once again, we must avoid the commoditization of products. We must never assume that lighter products are the only viable option. By constantly reducing the weight, we end up not helping the laundries who see their wash loads increase, and not helping the end user who receives products that typically are of a much lower quality and do not perform as expected.
Thinking outside the box will help us all. We need to think of combinations where the product’s weight will not influence drying time, or if it does, it will actually reduce drying time compared to similar items of the same weight. Utility costs will decrease and our value to customers will increase. Healthcare facilities will enjoy products of the same - or even better - quality, without straining an already stretched budget.
Another area where we can concentrate is wash temperature: Textile products that can be washed at colder temperatures but still be cleared of any bacteria or harmful substances. What about textiles that feature antimicrobial properties that do not need hot-water processing? As we hear more about the avian flu, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), which is typically associated with hospital patients and can cause infections such as boils and pneumonia, and other infectious viruses, we all need to be conscious that infection control is - and will continue to be - of utmost importance to all our customers.
Since the standard method of disinfection has been washing with hot, practically boiling water, suppliers that are proactive about energy efficient alternatives will get much more attention. We can help not only lower hot water bills, but also enhance our laundries’ safety in an era when controlling disease transmission is foremost in the minds of our healthcare workers.
Quest for quality and savings
The U.S. government’s recently announced proposal to increase investments in alternative sources of energy illustrates the gravity and importance of this situation. It’s our responsibility to support institutional laundries in their quest to save on energy costs.
In the end, we all will win by avoiding the never-ending search for the cheapest product. By concentrating our “energies” on presenting different and manageable solutions, we will help ourselves and help our laundry customers control energy costs while maintaining the highest level of quality.
By Gabriel Boardman
|
 |
Ultra-Knit Fitted Sheet
MIP recently introduced a revolutionary product: A bottom sheet that, on a cost per use basis, is less expensive than anything similar on the market. In addition, it offers superior durability and maintains the comfort that patients have grown accustomed to with MIP sheets.
When it was launched, it was not an overnight success. However, as customers began testing it, word of mouth spread rapidly, resulting in Ultra-Knit becoming a standard in the industry.
Through rigorous testing, we have observed that its extra-thick knit texture is as much as four times more resistant to abrasion and mechanical damage than competing products. This also means that Ultra-Knit sheets lose less of their original weight over time. These observations were later confirmed at customers' sites. Moreover, since Ultra-Knit dries much faster than any blended bed linen, customers benefit from significant energy and time savings.
Some of our customers, sensitive to infection control, have also noticed that, due to its exceptional strength, the Ultra-Knit sheet does not release lint into the air, thus reducing dust accumulation in patients' rooms.
By using the same patented envelope design featured in our standard Sleep-Knit line, Ultra-Knit fits securely over most mattress sizes and always provides a wrinkle-free surface, which is essential when patients within your facility are faced with skin integrity issues.
For additional information on our Ultra-Knit bed linen line, please consult our Product section or contact our representatives at 800.361.4964.
|
 |
Pressure Relief – New Areas of Focus
10 years ago, MIP began selling the Integriderm line of pressure reducing mattresses with the intent of addressing all pressure wound issues in facilities. Over the years, our Sales representatives have become more educated and have acquired significant knowledge from customers and members of associations like CAET and CAWC. Needless to say, when we added the AccuMax pressure relief mattress to our line of products in 2004, we had a much better understanding of how to meet facilities’ wound care surface needs.
The AccuMax mattress, manufactured by BG Industries, is distributed exclusively in Canada through MIP. It is an economical, pressure-redistributing mattress that addresses stages 1 to 4 pressure ulcers and can be used with or without power. An optional control unit (pump) can be purchased to add gentle, alternating pressure.
Although this pressure relief mattress plays a substantial role in treating pressure ulcers, we have learned that other factors, such as a balanced diet, additional treatments (ex. topical creams) and the use of certain bed linens and linen protectors may also impact the prevention or treatment of pressure ulcers. This acquired knowledge has broadened our areas of focus, and as a result, we have begun paying closer attention to the bed linens that are being used on support surfaces.
When first examining the bed linens on the market, we noticed that flat sheets, usually recommended for pressure relief mattresses, often came undone when the patient became restless or the bed was in various positions. Consequently, the bunched up sheets created potential pressure points and added to the workload of the care personnel having to continually remake the beds. Fortunately, the patented design of our knit sheets, whether Sleep-Knit or Ultra-Knit, addresses this problem; these sheets are designed to envelop the mattress for a secure fit, even when it is gatched. Therefore, this concept avoids the creation of potential pressure points, allows the patient to always lie comfortably on a smooth surface, and ensures that the facility’s personnel do not have to remake the beds unnecessarily during the day.
Another unique sheet that we consider quite practical is our recently introduced, patented “Smart Sheet”. Similar in design to our standard envelope bottom sheet, its special construction allows for easier access to the tubes that are connected to the sides of certain pressure relief mattresses.
Over the years, facilities have been using bedpads to protect bed linens from incontinence accidents and reposition patients in bed. Studies have shown, however, that there should be as few layers as possible between the patient and the mattress in order to maximize the pressure reducing properties of the surface. As facilities become increasingly aware of this fact, several choose to eliminate the use of bedpads altogether. Although, in theory, it is an informed decision, it creates a new set of hurdles for the care personnel. For instance, now that bedpads are no longer being used, facilities are in need of another product to support the no-lift policy that has been put in place in several facilities to avoid back injuries and other related inconveniences that often result from repositioning patients in bed without the proper tools.
In an effort to address this issue, MIP introduced a patient slider sheet (PTD-5) to the healthcare market. The product features a cotton blend surface, polyester backing and slim profile. The comfortable surface absorbs minor incidents that may occur, the slippery backing allows the healthcare staff to reposition patients safely and easily, and the thin profile should not impair the performance of the therapeutic mattress and can therefore, remain beneath the patient at all times.
On either side of the center part of the product, MIP has added flaps to ensure that the slider sheet remains securely tucked under the mattress when not in use. When the patient needs to be repositioned, caretakers simply have to untuck the flaps, roll them in as close as possible to the patient’s body and with very little effort, move the patient upward, downward or from side to side.
MIP has always believed in providing customers with superior and cost effective products. We make it a point to listen to feedback to ensure that we are providing sound advice and solutions that will cover all aspects of their busy and demanding days, while also lightening workloads and increasing the level of care to patients or residents. For this reason, we believe in providing a complete system, enhancing the pressure relief properties of the support surface by maintaining focus on proper linen use and related elements of bed make-up.
|
|
