Geisinger Medical Center receives national recognition as Environmental Services Department of the Year
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DANVILLE, Pa. – The Association for the Health Care Environment (AHE) announced recently that the Environmental Services (EVS) Department at Geisinger Medical Center has been honored as Environmental Services Department of the Year among U.S. teams operating in facilities of similar size.
The national recognition is presented for significant contributions to overall patient experience and achieving a health care organization’s mission. It denotes outstanding achievements of forward-looking EVS departments in maintaining high performance levels in cleaning, disinfecting, infection prevention, environmental sustainability and stewardship, technology use, patient satisfaction, education and training in critical areas.
“This recognition is a great credit to the work our team does every day to make sure our patients and visitors have a clean and safe environment for their care,” said Michael Brown, director of hospitality services. “It means so much because it gives credence to all the measures and effort our frontline staff has put into the preparation and execution of their work. EVS is one of the only departments in the hospital that touches every other department in the hospital. Our team understands the importance of their work and goes to great lengths to make any situation better for anyone or any department.”
The honor is bestowed yearly on one facility in each of three categories: 1 to 249 beds, 250 to 499 beds and 500-plus beds. Geisinger Medical Center received the award for the 500-plus bed category this year.
One of the areas that made a particular impact with the AHE is the Geisinger team’s attention to working efficiently without losing sight of quality. The team improved turnaround times by 33% from 2021 to 2022.
The team also implemented adenosine triphosphate (ATP) testing, an efficient way to verify the cleanliness of a surface, to reduce the time needed to inspect each room.
“This was truly a team effort,” Brown added. “There have been so many new protocols and measures we’ve had to implement over the past few years. We partnered with infection control, performance improvement, facilities, nursing, human resources and our system EVS administration team. The work is demanding, but our staff rose to every challenge. The credit for this recognition truly goes to our frontline colleagues who put procedures into practice and execute our operational plans every day.”
The EVS team at Geisinger Bloomsburg Hospital also received recognition as a Certificate of Merit recipient for hospitals in the 1- to 249-bed category.
The national recognition is presented for significant contributions to overall patient experience and achieving a health care organization’s mission. It denotes outstanding achievements of forward-looking EVS departments in maintaining high performance levels in cleaning, disinfecting, infection prevention, environmental sustainability and stewardship, technology use, patient satisfaction, education and training in critical areas.
“This recognition is a great credit to the work our team does every day to make sure our patients and visitors have a clean and safe environment for their care,” said Michael Brown, director of hospitality services. “It means so much because it gives credence to all the measures and effort our frontline staff has put into the preparation and execution of their work. EVS is one of the only departments in the hospital that touches every other department in the hospital. Our team understands the importance of their work and goes to great lengths to make any situation better for anyone or any department.”
The honor is bestowed yearly on one facility in each of three categories: 1 to 249 beds, 250 to 499 beds and 500-plus beds. Geisinger Medical Center received the award for the 500-plus bed category this year.
One of the areas that made a particular impact with the AHE is the Geisinger team’s attention to working efficiently without losing sight of quality. The team improved turnaround times by 33% from 2021 to 2022.
The team also implemented adenosine triphosphate (ATP) testing, an efficient way to verify the cleanliness of a surface, to reduce the time needed to inspect each room.
“This was truly a team effort,” Brown added. “There have been so many new protocols and measures we’ve had to implement over the past few years. We partnered with infection control, performance improvement, facilities, nursing, human resources and our system EVS administration team. The work is demanding, but our staff rose to every challenge. The credit for this recognition truly goes to our frontline colleagues who put procedures into practice and execute our operational plans every day.”
The EVS team at Geisinger Bloomsburg Hospital also received recognition as a Certificate of Merit recipient for hospitals in the 1- to 249-bed category.
About Geisinger
Geisinger is committed to making better health easier for the more than 1 million people it serves. Founded more than 100 years ago by Abigail Geisinger, the system now includes 10 hospital campuses, a health plan with more than half a million members, a research institute and the Geisinger College of Health Sciences, which includes schools of medicine, nursing and graduate education. With more than 25,000 employees and 1,700+ employed physicians, Geisinger boosts its hometown economies in Pennsylvania by billions of dollars annually. Learn more at geisinger.org or connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter.
