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!

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.

AHA issues guide to expanding the behavioral health capabilities of the workforce

A new guide from the AHA Workforce Center offers strategies to help hospitals and health systems expand the behavioral health capabilities of their workforce. Building on an AHA white paper in June on how hospitals and health systems are bridging the gap between the need for behavioral health care in their communities and a shortage of trained specialists, the new guide offers tools and suggestions for overcoming common challenges organizations face in assessing, educating and partnering with others to strengthen their behavioral health workforce.

Jamie Morgan, Health Facilities Management
In Phase II of its Elements of Performance (EP) review project, the Joint Commission is deleting 51 EPs to which health care facilities no longer will have to adhere beginning January 2017.

Matt Poe, American Laundry News
Laundry cycle management in Europe goes from dirty beds back to clean beds.

J. Hudson Garrett Jr., Healthcare Purchasing News
The risk for contamination of medical equipment and environmental surfaces is ever-present in the healthcare environment. However, risk can be successfully mitigated in most cases through the regular application of core infection prevention and control measures.

Mickey Crowe, CleanLink
A reader recently reached to me saying: "I keep having problems with my "wax jobs" due to powdering and needing to be re-stripped way too often. What am I doing wrong?"

facilities.net
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) unveiled a waste and materials tracking feature in its Energy Star Portfolio Manager, which is a free benchmarking and tracking tool for commercial building owners and managers.

Heather Punke, Becker's Infection Control & Clinical Quality
The new flu season will be upon us soon — a few local flu outbreaks have already occurred in the U.S. — and public health officials are urging everyone over 6 months old to get vaccinated before Oct. 31.

Cerrera Powell, The Flyer
With flu season just around the corner, the Food and Drug Administration, alongside the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has warned against use of anti-bacterial soaps and alcohol-based hand sanitizers.

David Brendel, Harvard Business Review
When individual contributors are tapped to manage large-scale projects, oversee direct reports, or participate in strategic planning, they need to develop new skill sets on the fly — skills such as interpersonal dexterity, emotional agility, and communication savvy.

Mackenzie Bean, Becker's Hospital Review
At 28-years-old, Stephanie Beauton already has quite a list of accomplishments to her name.

By Pattie Costello

An interview with Scott Thornton, CHESP, T-CHEST

Make yourself indispensable and advance your career! Plan your education for 2016. Visit AHE’s brand-new 2016 ENGAGE site to learn more about educational courses, podcasts, webinars, and events.

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.