The AHE awards and recognition program acknowledges and elevates professionals who have demonstrated the highest level of excellence and leadership. Award recipients are those who work towards advocating and educating themselves on best practices and standards, developing new leaders within a hospital or healthcare facility, and promoting the environmental services profession.

Applications are due June 9, 2017.

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
Nonclinical staff should consider the myriad ways they can help to improve patient outcomes.

American Laundry News
"What steps can I take to help maintenance staff, and employees who work with machines, be more aware of their surroundings in order to avoid accidents?"

Healthcare Facilities Today
Per the World Health Organization, about 15 percent of the waste generated by healthcare facilities is infectious, toxic or radioactive, making the proper disposal of medical waste one of the most important responsibilities of healthcare providers.

Kassandra Kania, CleanLink
While the mop-and-bucket mentality still prevails in many custodial departments, more facilities are investing in small, compact microscrubbers to improve efficiency and elevate the level of cleanliness.

Kelly M. Pyrek, Infection Control Today
Mobile devices are ubiquitous in society and their infiltration of the healthcare environment poses new challenges for infection prevention and control.

Heather Punke, Becker's Infection Control & Clinical Quality
Candida auris is an emerging, multidrug-resistant yeast that is poised to spread quickly through healthcare settings if not contained.

Heather Punke, Becker's Infection Control & Clinical Quality
While flu season inevitably comes every year, each season is different, with flu strains and severity differing each time.

Olivia Goudy, Herald-Standard
During the normal cold and flu season, sneezing and coughing are typical, and unfortunate, sounds heard on a regular basis.

Marcel Schwantes, Inc.
Motivation comes in many forms, but most of the time it's an intrinsic desire to act with clear intention and great purpose toward achieving something good.

Kathy Caprino, Forbes
In the leadership development work I do with mid- to high-level professionals, we begin by focusing on how to help each individual lead his or her own personal life in more positive and enlivening ways.

By Walter Vernon

By Cindy Nuesslein, RN, MBA, FACHE

Make yourself indispensable and advance your career! Plan your education for 2017. Visit AHE’s brand-new 2017 ENGAGE site to learn more about educational courses, podcasts, webinars, and events. And make sure to check out AHE's new EXPRESS Learning Courses. EXPRESS is a mobile learning platform that offers educational podcasts delivered by environmental services and infection prevention thought leaders. You asked for learning opportunities that require less of a time commitment and we delivered!

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.