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!

Matt Poe, American Laundry News
Sometimes it seems like goods processed by laundry and linen services simply get up and walk away.

John Hawley, The Daily Advance
Clothes don’t make the man, but they can make him healthier.

Jamie Morgan, Health Facilities Management
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is providing information to assist providers and suppliers in meeting the Training and Testing requirements of the new Emergency Preparedness Final Rule that was published on Sept. 16, 2016 (81 FR 63860), and became effective on Nov. 15, 2016.

Beth Lipoff, Kansas City Star
When it comes to cleaning, Olathe Medical Center is going high-tech—and ultraviolet.

Einav Keet, Contagion Live
Despite the overall decline in national flu activity, flu season is hitting late peaks in some parts of the United States; in fact, health officials around the country are predicting that some areas will experience a longer-lasting flu season than usual this year.

Stephanie Soucheray, CIDRAP
A study yesterday in the journal Pediatrics demonstrates for the first time that flu vaccines help prevent deaths in children with lab-confirmed influenza infection.

Anuja Vaidya, Becker's Infection Control & Clinical Quality
Text messaging via smartphones can help increase hand hygiene compliance among healthcare workers, a study published in the American Journal of Infection Control found.

Infection Control Today
The relationship between vitamin C dosage and its effects on the duration of the common cold symptoms may extend to 6 to 8 grams per day.

Tom Roth, EHS Today
As Baby Boomers retire, the ranks of managers and supervisors are being depleted.

David Peck, Huffington Post
True leadership — the kind that can fire people up, and inspire them to pull together to achieve a common vision — is something exceptional and rare.

By Lisa Ford, CHESP

By Ed Barr, CHESP

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.