Greetings, Kentucky
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By Joe Taylor, KSHE President
Let’s start with some GREAT news. On August 20th, we received notification that once again, KSHE has earned the highest award that can be given to an ASHE Chapter, the designation of Platinum Elite. Last year, only 12 of ASHE’s 54 Chapters earned this prestigious award. KSHE was one of the 12. We don’t yet know how many will receive the award this year, but we do know that once again – KSHE is one of them. For a chapter to receive recognition as Platinum Elite, it must meet the rigorous criteria for Platinum status plus additional criteria, which includes participation in the ASHE Energy to Care Chapter Challenge. Special thanks go out to Christy Fetch, Harshaw Trane – KSHE Sustainability Liaison and to Spencer Hammond, Director of Engineering for Lake Cumberland Regional Hospital – our Board Sustainability Director for their efforts in support of the Energy to Care Chapter Challenge.
September is going to be a busy month as we prepare for the October 2020 Virtual Healthcare Coalition Conference – “Celebrating Healthcare Heroes.” Since the conference registration fee is a very low $25 for members and $75 for non-members, we are working diligently to make sure that all of our Hospital & Health System master accounts have been updated to reflect all their current facilities employees. At this low rate, we already have 120 hospital facilities members registered, and there are still 45 days to go before the start of the Conference. I’m betting that this year will be our highest facility leader and technician registration ever. I wouldn’t be surprised to have 400+ registrants this year. Please also get the word out to your vendors, contractors, consultants and partners that there are still some very attractive sponsorship opportunities available and they WILL WANT TO BE A PART of the Virtual Exhibit Hall. Think about it: 400+ hospital people all wanting to visit your virtual exhibit booth over three days in October.
Finally, your KSHE chapter is in excellent financial health. While most ASHE Chapters rely on their annual face-to-face conference as their sole means of revenue generation and thus have been seriously damaged by the distancing requirements of the pandemic, we are not worried for two important reasons: 1) By quickly pivoting to a VIRTUAL conference and committing to making it the best conference we’ve ever produced, we believe there’s an opportunity to generate the same or even greater net income for the the chapter than by having a typical face-to-face conference, and 2) KSHE has several other diverse revenue sources, such as Safe Day One and the Kentucky Certified Healthcare Contractor (CHC) offering. Visit the KSHE website www.kshe.org for more information about these two high quality, well respected programs.
Best wishes for a cooler, calmer, quieter September. It’s very important to remember that in the midst of all our crises, while we are intently focused on taking good care of our families, friends and co-workers – we must also take care of ourselves. Read more; pray more; exercise more; eat less, drink less, get more sleep, laugh more, etc. You have to be a little bit selfish if you expect to be your best for others.
Talk soon.
Joe Taylor, President
Kentucky Society of Healthcare Engineers
