You have been given the task of choosing the new uniform supplier for your entire company.  Where do you even begin?  There are about a million medical scrubs companies from which to choose.  Whether your staff is made up of just a few or a few hundred, deciding upon what they will be wearing to work is not an easy task, nor is it something that should be taken lightly.  First, let’s take into consideration the type of medical practice.  For example, if you are working in a pediatric office or hospital, you might want to find a company that will supply bright, happy colors or offer prints with popular characters.  If you are working in elderly care, that same company is probably not a good choice unless they offer more subtle prints.  Once you have decided which type of apparel is best suited for your practice, you can narrow down your suppliers through the Internet.  The Internet is a wonderful tool for purchasing scrubs online and for researching what each company has to offer.  You can access company information, reviews, prices, quality guarantees, group discounts, shipping estimates, and much more.  To begin, choose five companies from your search.  Be sure to visit each supplier’s website and browse through their selection.

For example purposes only, let’s pretend that you work for an OB/GYN practice and are in charge of purchasing every nurses uniform as well as the doctors, assistance, and front desk.  After evaluating your options and taking the size and style of the staff members into consideration, you have decided that a solid color will be best.  However, so as not to make the office look too drab, you have decided on two colors:  one for the doctors and the other color for the rest of the staff.  Being in an OB office, a solid pink and a solid blue would be appropriate.

Now that you have decided upon the type of scrubs you need, now you can look at the staff.  Like every office, there is a combination of people.  You have a male doctor, a few female doctors – one who is older and thin, one who is young and very tall, and one who is very ‘Plain Jane’ and shows no interest in fashion.  Then, there are the nurses which are likely good combination of skin tones and colors, hair colors, body types, and style preferences.  First, you will obviously need to make sure that the company you consider  offers both men’s and women’s medical wear.  Second, let’s make sure that the uniforms they do offer are not too limited.  For example, not all of us want an elastic waist that’s actually at our waist.  But then, not all of us want our scrubs to sit at our hips, either.   A good variety is best.  However, with variety, you will need to make sure that the same fabric color and thread across the board.  You would not want the women who are wearing, for example,  Urbane tops to be mis-matched if they chose Dickies bottoms. 

After you have verified that your colors will match among styles, you should contact the company to see if they are willing to offer a bulk discount for your office.  If they are not willing, then you may not want to be willing to purchase from them.  While you are communicating with the uniform supplier, you should as questions such as prices on shipping, if they will offer free shipping for a bulk order, if they have any items on backorder, if the scrubs that you want to order will be offered for a long period of time or if they are a limited offer.  If you need to order more uniforms in the future for new employees, how easy will this be?  You should also weigh the benefit of working with a small company versus the benefit of ordering from a larger manufacturer.  Small companies will probably work harder to make you happy, but larger companies may have more of a supply, which makes future orders a little easier. 

Once you establish an account, you should be able to order any item at any time with your initial discount.  Also, if your practice needs embroidery or their logo monogrammed on the scrub tops, you can ask if the company who will be supplying your office’s uniforms if they provide the service or if they can recommend someone.  If not, it should not be too difficult to find a local facility to add the company logo and/or the employee’s names.

For larger companies who are ordering for hundreds or thousands of employees across many cities and/or states, there are a few more thoughts to consider, such as individual shipping, the ability for the employees to order directly from the web and still receive a discount, special orders for those who are oddly proportioned (some people really are 7 ft tall – be sure that this company can accommodate that), etc.  Hopefully, these few tips will make ordering for your office a little less stressful and will help avoid future problems with ordering from the same supplier. 

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