About
Shared Hospital Services is a locally owned company offering world-class services. Everything starts here at our Portsmouth, VA, facility, where our 150-plus team members provide what our clients need to succeed and to manage some of the toughest challenges facing healthcare today. We consider ourselves more than a choice in a laundry, but instead a preference in a strategic partner. Below, at a glance, is more about us:
History
In January 1972 Shared Hospital Services, known then as Tidewater Area Central Hospital Laundry, Inc., was an idea created and incorporated to serve the healthcare laundry needs of area hospitals.
The founding members – Portsmouth General Hospital, Louise Obici Memorial Hospital, Maryview Hospital, Medical Center Hospitals, Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters, and Norfolk Community Hospital – realized that by combining their similar needs into one operation – a cooperative laundry – would be a financial benefit to all.
This realization is true more 45 years later. Though the members have changed, the services provided by Shared Hospital Services continue to meet the current and changing needs of our members.
Benefits of a cooperative
A laundry cooperative is unique. It allows competing healthcare providers to
collaborate and reduce their mutual
costs of delivering patient care, as
well as provide greater control and
the opportunity to enhance quality
and service.
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A laundry cooperative works hand in hand with hospital staff to manage linen use and control loss and abuse.
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Most cooperatives are not-for-profit,
rather than profit-driven, and can more
easily accommodate member hospital
requests for specific types of goods.
In addition, it’s much easier for a
member-owned cooperative to react quickly to the changing needs and demands of the members.
In addition, owning or being part
of a cooperative allows healthcare
members to divest themselves of laundry
personnel — all staff persons are
employees of the laundry (equipment,
operating functions and costs, and debt
are also owned by the laundry).
Our partners
Shared Hospital Services has served the medical community with pride by supplying the linen needs and textile maintenance of all of the majority of the hospitals in the Hampton Roads area including:
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Riverside Regional Medical Center
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Riverside Shore Memorial Hospital
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Riverside Doctors Hospital Williamsburg
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Riverside Mental Health & Recovery Center
We also service many smaller facilities in the area.
Community involvement
Shared Hospital Services is locally owned and operated. We’ve been an integral part of the community for more than 45 years. We consider ourselves a neighbor. Our 150-plus team members live nearby, and we shop and give back to local businesses. We treat our team members like family, and in turn, they give back to our local businesses.
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Shared Hospital Services is also active in the community with their support of the following agencies:
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Chesapeake homeless shelters
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Suffolk homeless shelters
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SoapChips of Norfolk and Virginia Beach
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LINK of Hampton Roads
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Virginia Beach Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (VBSPCA)
What sets us apart
Responsiveness
We promise to consistently deliver the right product, in the right quantity, at the right time – even in times of emergency or disaster.
Value
We have a proven history of providing top-quality products and services at a cost-effective price, tailored to meet our partners' needs. We use a clean piece billing system with no hidden charges.
Ownership
We dedicate ourselves to treating every sales dollar spent as an investment in the future. Our partners have the opportunity to provide direct input on the products and services we offer through participation in our Laundry and Linen Committees. Facilities that qualify you can also apply for membership in TACHL, Inc. t/a Shared Hospital Services. Cooperative members receive benefits including patronage dividends and voting privileges in the Board of Directors elections.
Innovation
We are committed to providing better solutions for today’s needs and tomorrow’s challenges. We are unmatched in the region in customer education, in-servicing and cost management initiatives. By collaborating with our customers and our suppliers we are able to focus on products, services, and technologies that identify needs, increase efficiencies, and produce results.