News

The Association for the Healthcare Environment (AHE), of the American Hospital Association (AHA), and Kimberly-Clark announced today the first recipients of the Heart of Healthcare Awards, honoring outstanding frontline environmental services professionals who make a difference for patients and long-term care and assisted living residents. The award is part of the Heart of Healthcare campaign developed by AHE and Kimberly-Clark Professional, which recognizes and elevates the critical role that frontline environmental services technicians play in the healthcare environment.

There has been a lot of chatter about standards of practice for cleaning and surface disinfection or the perceived lack thereof. Evidence- based best practices in environmental services do in fact exist. However, willingness outside of environmental services to accept them has been less than stellar. Environmental services (EVS) professionals are not scientists nor trained researchers, but they can tell you whether your data can be practically implemented. The bottom line is there are so many conflicting views on everything from disinfecting floors to whether or not infection can be traced back to environmental surfaces, that we are just short of turf wars.

Earlier this year, the annual meeting of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) brought together thousands of infection preventionists, nurses, vendors and other professionals seriously interested in learning how to be more effective in their commitment to reduce preventable HAIs and ensure a safe patient environment. People came from many countries to learn about the latest research presented by healthcare leaders and a number of world-renowned experts dedicated to infection prevention.

Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) continue to negatively impact the worlds healthcare systems. With continued threats of pandemics, bioterrorism, and evolving multi-drug resistant microorganisms, Infection preventionists face conflicting priorities and must prioritize and streamline processes. In the United States, sadly 1 in 20 patients receiving care in hospitals will contract an HAI. Most HAIs originate from one of three common sources: contaminated hands of the healthcare provider and/or patient, contaminated environmental surfaces, or the contaminated skin of the patient.

The World Health Organization (WHO) taught the global healthcare community that there are five critical moments in hand hygiene that can make or break infection prevention efforts. Now, using a framework provided by the WHO, hospitals around the world can conduct assessments of their hand hygiene compliance efforts within the context of the larger issues of institutional cultures of safety and other key measures impacting patient outcomes. A recent survey of U.S. healthcare facilities reveals that while great strides are being made, there is much more work to be done to boost hand hygiene monitoring and self-assessment.