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 help us redefine healthcare environmental services!

We need YOU! 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.

Jamie Morgan, Health Facilities Management
The Association for the Healthcare Environment (AHE), a professional membership group of the American Hospital Association, expects 700 environmental services technicians to complete the Certified Healthcare Environmental Services Technician (CHEST) program by the end of this year. So far, 500 environmental services personnel have received their certifications.

Jackie Roberson, Healthcare Facilities Today
While we all know that hospitals and other healthcare facilities do a wonderful job of caring for many millions of patients across the country each year, unfortunately lots of negative incidences do also occur onsite.

Linda Arters, McKnight's
"Information is King" when an unexpected emergency or natural disaster strikes.

Ron Shinkman, FierceHealthcare
More than 10 years after Hurricane Katrina destroyed a New Orleans Veterans Affairs hospital, the new replacement facility—a model for storm preparedness—has finally opened.

Heather Punke, Becker's Infection Control & Clinical Quality
Hospitals in stressed cities — cities with high poverty, unemployment rates, divorce rates and poor health conditions — tend to have lower overall star ratings from CMS than hospitals in less-stressed areas, according to a study in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Rich Feczko, Healthcare Facilities Today
As hospitals nationwide search to improve the cleanliness of their facilities, infection control continues to be one of their biggest challenges.

Infection Control Today
When you were a kid, you might have heard a parent or sibling cite the "five-second rule" before swooping down on a piece of fugitive salami or a wayward grape.

Lizette Borreli, Medical Daily
Bed bugs, known in the scientific world as "cimex lectularius," are the fastest-growing pest control emergency in the developed world.

Brent Gleeson, Forbes
There are many varying perspectives on what great leadership is, the traits necessary for being an effective leader and how to build winning teams.

Leanne Hoagland-Smith, Chicago Tribune
Leadership, according to noted business guru Peter Drucker, is all about results.

By Mitch Birchfield

An interview with Scott Thornton, CHESP, T-CHEST

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

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.