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
Human factors engineering (HFE), the scientific study of how to optimize human performance and processes by designing and redesigning work systems, has been used effectively to improve hospital quality and safety by doing such things as reducing medication errors and readmissions.

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?"

CleanLink
Grinnell Regional Medical Center in Grinnell, Iowa, was among the first US hospitals to install solid antimicrobial copper surfaces as an infection-control measure.

Phil Keren, Tallmadge Express
It felt like a scene from a science fiction movie. As media members and Western Reserve hospital officials stood in an adjacent room and watched through glass, a machine stationed in an operating room began running, its purple lid -- which resembled a flying saucer -- slowly rose, revealing a xenon bulb which emitted Ultraviolet C light to disinfect the room.

Infection Control Today
Hospital room floors may be an overlooked source of infection, according to a study published in the March issue of the American Journal of Infection Control.

Heather Punke, Becker's Infection Control & Clinical Quality
Bacteria proliferate in hospital sink drains, and new research from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville charts out bacteria's pathways from the sink to hospital patients.

Einav Keet, Contagion Live
With several more weeks left to go in the 2016-2017 flu season in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released early data showing that this year’s flu shot has effectively reduced the risk of being infected with the virus by nearly half for those vaccinated.

Brian Zimmerman, Becker's Infection Control & Clinical Quality
In the era of antibiotic resistant superbugs, it's important to be aware of the invisible bacteria that surrounds us every day

Infection Control Today
Scientists at the universities of York, Leeds, and Helsinki say they are a step closer to cracking, what researchers have dubbed, the 'Enigma Code' of the common cold virus.

Claudio Toyama, Forbes
What are the key characteristics of successful and charismatic leaders?

Rehan Ijaz, Entrepreneur
Develop the heart of a servant but the confidence of the well-prepared.

By Carrie Schuster

By Carl Solomon Sr., MBA, FAHE, 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!

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.