Mike Hrickiewicz, Health Facilities Management
As consumerism becomes an increasingly crucial focal point for health care organizations in the post-reform era, hospital operational departments are discovering the importance of their roles in this evolution.

United States Access Board via Health Facilities Management
The next installment of the United States Access Board’s online guide to accessibility standards issued under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Architectural Barriers Act (ABA) is now available.

Jamie Morgan, Health Facilities Management
Has your health facility incorporated design features specifically to accommodate older patients?

Del Williams, HCO News
As the U.S. health care system upgrades or replaces outdated hospitals from the 1960s and 1970s, evidence-based research shows that taking measures to decrease patient stress and instill a sense of control can reduce anxiety and the use of pain-controlled opioid medications, while improving cooperation and clinical outcomes.

Zach Gentry, Facility Care
Networked lighting systems are advancing significantly, providing health care facilities the ability to increase energy savings, increase light quality and collect a significant amount of data — energy usage, customer tracking and space utilization — that has never been collected before.

American Laundry News
Proper laundering and handling are important in achieving and maintaining the hygienically clean quality of health care fabrics and textiles delivered to the point of care, according to a new review that highlights evidence-based strategies to inhibit potentially serious contamination.

Heather Punke, Becker’s Infection Control and Clinical Quality
Clorox Healthcare and the Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics have formed a partnership to develop educational resources and materials about the importance of comprehensive infection control practices in reducing the spread of infections.

Jill Arce, Tech Times
The number of reported cases of Legionnaires' disease has significantly increased in the United States this year. Experts say outbreaks are expected, but the reports have been quickly coming in, from illnesses to deaths, that the anticipated numbers have even doubled in August alone.

Healthcare Facilities Today
The Indiana University Health foodservice department has implemented a system that uses the RFID chip in an associate’s badge to tracks hand-washing, according to an article on the Foodservice Equipment and Supplies website.

Infection Control Today
Between Aug. 26 and Aug. 31, 2015, the National IHR Focal Point for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia notified the World Health Organization (WHO) of 22 additional cases of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) infection, including three deaths.

Infection Control Today
Sept. 3, 2015, the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared Liberia to be free of Ebola virus transmission in the human population.

Rick Pendrous, FoodManufacture.co.uk
An ultraviolet (UV) light-emitting diode (LED) lamp has been launched for use with a special ‘glow lotion’ to assess the impact of hand washing training.

Max Green, Becker’s Infection Control and Clinical Quality
Nearly half of men report seeing other men leave the workplace restroom without washing their hands, according to a new survey. Only about one-third of women attested to seeing the same thing.

Jim Burger, Outpatient Surgery
At Mercy Tiffin, a rural community hospital in Tiffin, Ohio, with a separate ASC attached, the key to driving down post-op surgical site infection rates was to use a comprehensive approach.

Andre Lavoie, Entrepreneur
When it comes to managing employees, most employers tend to take one of two key leadership approaches. There’s the "power/authority" approach, where it’s their way or the highway, or the "influence" approach, where the goal is to get employees on the same page and empower them to make decisions that will have a positive impact on the organization.

David Brendel, Harvard Business Reivew
Much has been written about "stress management" techniques that are primarily behavioral in nature — such as getting adequate sleep, regular exercise, and mental downtime; taking vacation; doing controlled breathing; practicing yoga or mindfulness meditation; or getting acupuncture treatments.

EXPRESS is a 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!

Wednesday, Sept. 30
Complimentary for AHE members!
In this webinar our panel of experts will outline and discuss emergency preparedness strategy and tactics that include environmental services leaders’ evolving role, and lessons learned from the Ebola outbreak, now considered the worst health crisis to hit the world in 35 years.

AHE via Infection Control Today
The Association for the Healthcare Environment (AHE) announces the nominees for its Innovation Award which celebrates innovation in environmental services, infection prevention and safety, and recognizes the new solutions that are responding to and helping to advance the strategic goals of providers and operators in the field.

If interested in contributing to EXPLORE by authoring a best-practices article, email Heather Williams, EXPLORE editor, for more information. The magazine covers all aspects relevant to health care environmental services professionals.

George Clarke, BS, and John Scherberger, BS, CHESP, REH
Several years ago, a renowned academic and author on business management said: "...to fix health care, we have to ask the right questions." In Harvard Business Review Henry Mintzberg also wrote: "The health care system could benefit... by adopting successful practices that are already in use—practices that are informed by good management."

John Scherberger, BS, CHESP, REH
It’s been said environmental services professionals interact with patients as much as nursing staff, and often times more so. Regardless of one’s opinion, it’s a fact both professions render a special kind of treatment and care. Keep in mind that treatment and care are not synonymous, yet both are absolutely essential to patients.