VCU Health awards $26Mn cleaning contract to HHS
- VCU Health will pay approximately $26 million in the contract’s first year
- The environmental services contract with HHS runs three years
- Crothall Healthcare will lay off 545 employees on October 31, 2026
- HHS aims to retain 100% of the frontline workers
VIRGINIA, UNITED STATES — Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Health will pay approximately $26 million in the first year of a new three-year environmental services contract with Texas-based HHS Environmental Services, replacing Pennsylvania-based Crothall Healthcare after a six-year partnership.
VCU Health switches environmental services vendor
VCU Health selected HHS Environmental Services through a competitive bid process, with the new vendor set to begin providing acute care housekeeping and environmental services at the Richmond medical campus on November 1.
The transition was reported by Richmond BizSense, which noted that HHS plans to deploy more frontline workers at VCU Health’s campus than Crothall had.
“This transition reflects our continued commitment to delivering exceptional patient experiences, maintaining the highest standards of cleanliness and infection prevention, and ensuring operational excellence across our health system,” said Danielle Pierce, a spokeswoman for VCU Health.
VCU Health is one of Virginia’s largest academic health systems, with its downtown Richmond medical center serving as a major regional trauma and teaching hospital.
Environmental services functions as a first-line defense against hospital-acquired infections, making vendor selection a clinical quality decision.
545 Crothall workers face October layoffs
Pennsylvania-based Crothall Healthcare notified the state of Virginia in late August that its contract to clean VCU Health’s downtown facilities is ending, and that 545 employees will be laid off effective October 31, 2026.
All services at 1230 E. Marshall St. in Richmond are ceasing, with workers directed to apply for open positions with HHS Environmental Services.
Derek Kissos, chief growth officer for healthcare at HHS Environmental Services, said VCU Health was explicit about its priorities during the selection process.
“VCU Health leadership came to all the vendors as part of this process, explained their needs, and their need was they wanted to improve the quality and the cleanliness of the facility, the safety for their patients and the safety for their staff,” Kissos said.
HHS Environmental Services has stated its goal is to retain 100% of the frontline employees currently working under Crothall Healthcare’s contract, a commitment that would absorb all 545 affected workers.
Hospital environmental services outsourcing has grown as a strategy for health systems seeking to balance infection control standards with cost efficiency.
The transition also highlights the workforce consequences for contracted employees when large healthcare systems rebid service agreements, a pattern increasingly common as systems renegotiate vendor arrangements.
Health systems evaluating business process outsourcing (BPO) partners for non-clinical operations can benchmark facility services and support function providers through the top healthcare outsourcing companies in the United States.
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