Linda Lybert, Health Facilities Management
Preventing health care-associated infections (HAIs) is a top concern of all health care organizations. On the front lines of these efforts, environmental services (ES) professionals are availing themselves of the latest science-based training, technology and supplies as they fight multidrug-resistant organisms.

Eric Frederick, American Laundry News
This year marks the start of my 46th year in the laundry business. It is hard to believe that I have been working in this industry that long.

Carolyn Schierhorn, Health Facilities Management
When Antonio Suárez, CHFM, SASHE, joined Midland (Texas) Memorial Hospital as director of facilities services in 2010, he found an employer that already prided itself on energy conservation.

Lena J. Weiner, HealthLeaders
There is no secret formula for improving efficiency and cutting costs, but using analytics tools to inform management decisions is vital.

Joseph Goedert, Health Data Management
Customer relationship management software being used at Yale New Haven Hospital in Connecticut improved patient satisfaction scores considerably between last September and this past March.

Healio
Researchers from South Carolina reported that electronic hand hygiene monitoring based on WHO’s My 5 Moments for Hand Hygiene led to a significant decrease in health care-associated MRSA infections.

Mary Rechtoris, Becker's Infection Control & Clinical Quality
Healthcare facilities often struggle with ensuring staff is hand hygiene compliant.

Kelly Teal, Infection Control Today
With the Ebola crisis in the rearview mirror but lurking, cases of C. difficile on the rise, and other known and emerging viruses creeping across the globe, health leaders are focusing greater attention on protecting the people on the front lines of care.

Dyana C. Williams, MBA, MSN, RN, CNOR, Infection Control Today
The reporting of any type of healthcare-associated infection (HAI) is difficult.

Sheila Hagar, Union-Bulletin.com
Despite a recently discovered "superbug" with overseas origins, data show more than 60 percent of the nation’s hospitals don’t follow all of the government’s recommendations to reduce the threat patients will become infected by bacteria not killed or slowed by antibiotics.

Rodger Dean Duncan, Forbes
A first tendency of many business people is to fix things. After all, they’re paid to solve problems, so the metaphor of the mechanic seems natural.

Nicole Fallon Taylor, Business News Daily
When you step into your first leadership role, you'll probably be bombarded with tips from your peers and colleagues in management.

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

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.

To acknowledge the ongoing and outstanding sustainability efforts of healthcare facilities - and environmental service departments in particular - the AHE presents the Environmental Sustainability Certificate Program. This program not only provides guidance on efficient, effective and value-added environmentally sustainable healthcare operations, but also provides it in such a way that is achievable within all budgets. It is part of the AHE’s overall sustainability initiative, which includes ongoing development of sustainability programs, publications and educational opportunities.

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.

Celebrate your team during Environmental Services Week, September 11-17, 2016.

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

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