The Association for the Healthcare Environment (AHE) of the American Hospital Association invites those interested in presenting at its EXCHANGE 2017 to submit a proposal for review by the Conference Planning Committee.
Important Dates:
• November 30, 2016: Call for Presentations Opens
• January 6, 2017: Call for Presentations Ends
• March 3, 2017: Notification of Approval
• September 17-22, 2017: EXCHANGE 2017 in Orlando, FL

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!

Jamie Morgan, Health Facilities Management
Environmental services technicians occupy a truly distinct position on the health care team.

Bill Brooks, American Laundry News
As we wrap up another year and plan for 2017, it’s an appropriate time to look ahead at what’s to come for on-premises laundries (OPL).

Mickey Crowe, CleanLink
You might want to consider a simple exercise where you compare the productivity and outcomes of a worker or account that has ongoing training versus another worker or account that has little or none.

Brendan Hesse, Digital Trends
Bedbugs. They’re gross, annoying, and can cause quite an itch.

Anuja Vaidya, Becker's Infection Control & Clinical Quality
A large Zika outbreak is not likely to occur in the United States, despite climate conditions that are increasingly favorable to mosquitoes that spread the virus, according to a paper published in the Journal of Medical Entomology.

Heather Punke, Becker's Infection Control & Clinical Quality
Bactria growing resistant to antibiotics has been a looming threat for years — resistance to penicillin showed up before the 1950s, and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus was first discovered in the U.S. in 1968, according to a piece in Pharmacy & Therapeutics.

Infection Control Today
According to the CDC's FluView report for the week ending Dec. 24, 2016 (week 51), flu activity increased in the United States.

Mark Boyle, The Denver Channel
Healthcare related spread of infection is a big concern to hospitals and clinics all over the world.

Fleet Maull, Forbes
There are many different leadership styles and qualities that make a good leader, but people tend to be most attracted to and influenced by leaders who are empathetic.

Joseph Folkman, Forbes
Like me, you know what you ought to do, and it’s important to do it.

By Carl Solomon Sr., MBA, FAHE, CHESP

By Carrie Schuster

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.

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.