Controlling costs with no compromise on hygiene and patient security is a major challenge in hospitals and healthcare institutions. RFID tags embedded in garments and linen reduce manual handling on the soil side, increasing the hygiene levels and improving infection control; provide accurate wash count records helping to predict the end-of-life date for each textile and thus to plan purchases carefully; offer visibility into inventories avoiding delays in day-to-day non-stop garment availability and preventing lost and stolen items.