Cecil (Keith) Welch and Wesley Smith, Healthcare Facilities Today
In today’s regulated healthcare environments, time and money are often in short supply, and are closely monitored.

Caledonian Record
Despite being named (by Becker’s Hospital Review) as one of the top 52 hospitals nationwide with the cleanest patient rooms, as reported by the patients, Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital is committed to ongoing improvement.

Greg Zimmerman, facilitiesnet.com
Mention Snapchat and Pinterest (not even to mention Twitter and Facebook) to most facility managers, and chances are, you’ll probably be treated to either a blank stare, or an eye-roll and a proclamation along the lines of "I have enough to do without carving out time to goof around on the Internet."

NorthJersey.com
The Valley Hospital has a nationally recognized and longstanding commitment to being an environmentally friendly organization.

Jaime Morgan, Health Facilities Management
For hospitals that face daunting challenges like nursing shortages or high readmission rates, looking to the supply chain as a part of the solution to their needs may not be the first thing that comes to mind.

Nancy Chobin, RN, AAS, ACSP, CSPM, Infection Control Today
Q: My facility does not launder our scrubs, we must take them home. I have heard from other colleagues that their facilities provide and launder their scrubs. What is the recommended dress code for SPD in the clean/sterile areas and should our scrubs be laundered by the facility?

Lars Wulff-Nilsen and Peter Teska, Infection Control Today
Even if they appear clean, your hands can be a vehicle for spreading potentially deadly foodborne illnesses and healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). To reduce the transmission of pathogens, proper and regular hand care is key.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has received reports from international healthcare facilities that Candida auris, an emerging multidrug-resistant (MDR) yeast, is causing invasive healthcare-associated infections with high mortality.

Heather Punke, Becker's Infection Control & Clinical Quality
A study out of the University Hospital of Saint-Etienne in France shows mobile devices used by hospital workers harbor viral RNA, and a large chunk of healthcare workers don't wash their hands before or after using their mobile devices.

Marcia Patrick, MSN, RN, CIC, Infection Control Today
Almost everything we do in the healthcare industry is designed around one main focal point: patient safety.

Victor Lipman, Harvard Business Review
During the last five years of my corporate management career, I had a great deal of leadership development.

Nicole Fallon Taylor, Business News Daily Managing Editor
ommon wisdom about leadership often favors "leading by example," so you might not think too much about the way your team interprets what you say.

The AHE Seal of Review and Recognition Program is designed to be a comprehensive review and formalized recognition process aimed at assisting healthcare professionals in selecting training and in-service programs that promote quality, safety and the most favorable outcomes for the healthcare environment and its related disciplines.

AHE is gathering input from environmental services departments across the country to identify baseline staffing productivity standards. The results of this data gathering will be used in building staffing models and providing metrics for environmental services directors. You can be a key player in identifying and establishing these important staffing criteria for our industry.

Plan your education for 2016. Visit AHE’s brand-new 2016 ENGAGE site to learn more about educational courses, podcasts, webinars, and events.

Interested in leading AHE into the future? Today is the deadline to apply!

EXCHANGE 2016 will be held on September 25-28, at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh, PA. This year, EXCHANGE attendees can look forward to:
• Preconference Workshop
• CHEST Preconference Workshop
• CMIP Preconference Workshop
• Micro Sessions
• Extended Sessions
• Healthcare Marketplace

AHE has started this initiative to encourage professionals in the field to begin, or continue to refer to the departments and the personnel caring for the healthcare environment as environmental services professionals rather than as housekeepers, janitors and custodians. The staff and management teams responsible for maintaining the clinical environment of care require different skills and competencies from those needed in the commercial cleaning and general maintenance industry and it's time we address this critical distinction.

Please join AHE in ongoing efforts.

The Association for the Healthcare Environment’s diverse membership includes environmental services professionals from many different backgrounds, including international members. Here, we feature three perspectives on the global scope of environmental services and what AHE has to offer for members in any country.

The Value of Training; an interview with Patrick Covington, T-CHEST