Heather Punke, Becker’s Infection Control & Clinical Quality
Three tips from St. Luke's Boise on how to successfully switch disinfectant cleaners and lower infection rates.

Michael Gilmore & Paul Luster, Medical Construction & Design
Energy efficiency is a pressing area of concern in the modern health care industry. On one hand, unlike many other industries, hospitals have stringent health and safety requirements that make energy reduction difficult.

Healthy Facilities Institute
Six Sigma was developed by Motorola (1986) for quality and process improvement, and has since helped many companies (famously, General Electric) move closer to consistent, defect-free product manufacturing.

Kassandra Kania, CleanLink
Understanding the differences between the generations is critical if custodial executives want to build a successful, multigenerational department.

Gary Pollack, Facility Care
It’s never been more important to ensure the care of a patient’s health in our hospitals and health care systems. The environment plays a critical role in the transmission of disease-causing germs, which can affect patient healing and wellness.

Janet Boivin, RN, HealthLeaders Media
The improper use of personal protective equipment among health care workers is "pretty pervasive in all institutions," says a researcher.

Mike Hrickiewicz, Health Facilities Management
Information on health care codes and standards.

Bob Kehoe, Health Facilities Management
As a thought leader at Skanska, one of the nation’s largest health care construction firms, and a partner in NXT Health’s Patient Room 2020 program, Andrew Quirk sees exciting opportunities ahead to build what he calls "future-enabled" hospitals faster, better and cheaper while offering greater energy-efficiency and improved flexibility.

Joel Rich, McKnight’s Long-Term Care News
Studies show collaborative working relationships between infection prevention and control and environmental services professionals can reduce rates of infection transmission, as well as improve facility outcomes, reduce redundancies in processes, improve patient, or resident, satisfaction, and reduce costs.

Mark Greenblatt, 7NEWS Denver via Scripps
A new federal crackdown that takes money away from hospitals with high infection rates already is prompting reforms in its first year at some Denver locations, such as Rose Medical Center, Swedish Medical Center, Presbyterian/St. Luke’s Medical Center and The Medical Center of Aurora.

Ana Mulero, FierceHealthcare
Although proper hand-hygiene is considered the most important measure to prevent the spread of infections, nearly 1 in 4 hospitals fail to fully comply with recommended guidelines. But a new guide by the Association for Professional in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) aims to change that and help hospitals boost compliance.

Infection Control Today
Just as the brain forms memories of familiar faces, the immune system remembers pathogens it has encountered in the past. T cells with these memories circulate in the blood stream looking for sites of new infection.

Shannon Barnet, Becker’s Infection Control & Clinical Quality
An expert panel of infectious disease specialists conducted a literature review of Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea prevention measures and risk factors and voted to approve 11 recommendations, published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.

Joanne Finnegan, FierceHealthcare
A new study presents some troubling findings when it comes to the rise of antibiotic-resistant superbugs in hospitals across the country. The antibiotic-resistant bacteria, once thought to be less "fit" than other strains, in fact survive better and cause more deadly infections, according to the findings.

Bob Kehoe, Health Facilities Management
The market for devices designed to kill bacteria in health care settings continues to expand, with the latest application being offered in an overhead light fixture that is safe around patients and hospital staff.

Gabrey Means and Cassie Hughes, Entrepreneur
Team development and growth is critical to every business, and retaining top talent, more important than ever. However, a great compensation package alone will not ensure that a talented worker stays in the fold.

Gretchen Gavett, Harvard Business Review
You, like me, probably rattle off emails quickly, all day (and sometimes all night) long. And that means the people receiving your emails are doing exactly the same thing.

Margie Warrell, Forbes
Sir Richard Branson is a man I’ve admired as long as I remember. His books sit atop my bookshelves, their pages underlined with insights on taking risks, handling failure and living bravely.

Wednesday, August 19
We all know just how challenging it can be to work cohesively with other departments. We sometimes look at these departments with disrespect and contempt. Many times the feelings are mutual. When this happens, it is important to know what to do to build bridges, strengthen relationships, and foster effective communication as well as collaboration.

Free for AHE members!

AHE has launched Express, a new mobile learning platform that offers educational podcasts delivered by environmental services and infection prevention thought leaders. You asked for a learning opportunities that required less of a time commitment and we delivered!

Current Express offerings include:

The Infection Prevention to Environmental Services Experience
• Regulated World of the Environmental Services Professional
• 3 Steps to Better Financial Management
• Important Infection Prevention
• Importance of Collaboration
• What's New in Floor Care
• Keys to Reducing Linen Utilization & Replacement Costs
• Tips to Improve HCAHPS
• Leading by Example
• Lessons Learned from the Ebola Outbreak
• AHE's Key Strategic Priorities for 2015

The new brochure includes tons of information on the new program, its benefits, the Train the Trainer Program, educational highlights, and eligibility requirements. To access and download the PDF, click ‘learn more’ below.