How the facility cleans more than 60,000 pieces per day

BOISE, Idaho (CBS2) — While the average human being does laundry every few days, potentially weekly, St. Luke's Central Laundry produces around 63,000 items of laundry a day, accumulating to more than 12 million items per year.

The staff at St. Luke's Central Laundry fully understand the vast quantity of fresh laundry they produce.

"We process around 12 million pounds (of laundry) a year," Director of St. Luke's Central Laundry, Ken Johnson said. "About 38,000 pounds a day, six days a week... (the) number of pieces we produce a day is around 63,000 pieces."

The magnitude of the operation is immense. 180 clinics and 16 hospitals, from Twin Falls to Baker City, and even McCall, rely on the facility for their laundry. All the items laundered have to be done in a way that meets specific hygienic standards.

Working through the vast quantities of laundry is complex. Much of the work is made automated, but many tasks still require humans. Hasib Hashimi, who's a plant supervisor, said that it's a lot of work but a lot of fun.

"The fun moments,? Hashimi said in a response to a question. "Everyday is fun. It's the teamwork, I like teamwork, and we are busy every day, and it's a happy place for work."

Inside, rails line the ceiling, gigantic washing machines spin, ironing machines press and that's only about half the facility. Technology greatly enhances the process and efficiency. The washers can get through a load of laundry (around 130 pounds) in just three minutes.

St. Luke's also does laundry for other clinics and hospitals beyond the St. Luke's family. They're billed by the pound at the end of the laundry cleaning cycle. One load CBS2 saw totaled 510 pounds.

Johnson said that the daily grind of producing so much clean laundry is challenging, but added that the team's success keeps them going.

"What's fun for me is when I walk in, the morning, all the clean laundry is gone out of here, and the back side is full of dirty carts," Johnson said. "But when I go home, everything's built and you can see visually everything we did today."

St. Luke's Central Laundry is hiring. For more information, click here.

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