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!

Bob Kehoe, Health Facilities Management
Association for the Healthcare Environment (AHE) Executive Director Patti Costello and AHE Advisory Council members assess progress and challenges for those who clean and maintain inpatient and outpatient care facilities.

Matt Poe, American Laundry News
Experts say planning to replace worn machinery can increase efficiencies, save money.

CleanLink
A union organization says cuts to cleaning services can lead to a rise in hospital-acquired infections, according to an article on the Recorder website.

Charles Crowe, CleanLink
As cleaning professionals, we have all used various mop handles throughout our careers. Some of them we’ve liked, and others, not so much.

AHA News Now
The House Energy and Commerce Committee held a subcommittee hearing on the U.S. public health response to Zika, a mosquito-borne virus that can cause birth defects in infants born to women infected during pregnancy.

Mark Beavers, CleanLink
As the weather heats up, summer brings new challenges to facilities because people want to spend more time outdoors, while expecting comfortable conditions indoors.

Infection Control Today
On May 11, 2017, the Ministry of Public Health of the Democratic Republic of the Congo notified international public health agencies of a cluster of suspected cases of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in the Likati health zone of the province of Bas Uélé.

Heather Punke, Becker's Infection Control & Clinical Quality
When it comes to preventing blood and body fluid exposure among healthcare workers, some hospitals have found more success than others. The study in the Journal of the Association of Occupational Health Professionals in Healthcare recently detailed how the 10 hospitals with the lowest blood exposure incidence rates accomplished that feat.

Susan Scutti, CNN
The number of cases of an emerging and often multidrug-resistant fungus in the United States has grown from seven to 122 over the past nine months, according to a field report in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report issued by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Katy Cowan, Creative Boom
What does it mean to be a great leader at work?

Brian Honigman, TNW
A leader’s strengths and weaknesses directly inform how they guide others to thrive at work.

By Ed Barr, CHESP

By Lisa Ford, CHESP

Make yourself indispensable and advance your career! Plan your education for 2017. Visit AHE’s 2017 ENGAGE site to learn more about educational courses, podcasts, webinars, and events. And make sure to check out AHE's 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.