Environmental Services

Knowing the protocol is only the beginning. In The Clean Bite, Sherrie Busby explores how explaining the why, addressing staff concerns, and creating clear procedures can help dental teams make infection control part of everyday practice.

What might infection prevention rounds miss when visible conditions dominate the conversation? Tommy Davis, PhD, CMIP, a member of ICT's executive advisory board, makes the case for structured observations of clinical workflows, shared accountability, and greater attention to environmental services staff’s insights.

A followed procedure can still leave patients at risk if it no longer matches validated requirements. Annetta L. McKnight, MHA, BSN, CRCST, CER, examines how infection prevention and sterile processing can identify process drift, assess disruptions, and strengthen shared oversight of medical device reprocessing.

Turnover pressure can leave critical OR cleaning steps unfinished. Karen deKay, MSN, RN, EBP-C, CNOR, CIC, FAPIC, examines common gaps in environmental hygiene and how shared responsibilities, attention to disinfectant contact time, and ongoing education can help teams strengthen practices between cases.

Sterile processing professionals face constant interruptions, cognitive overload, increasingly complex devices, and hundreds of IFUs. Randalyn Harreld, CRCST, FHSPA, explains why health care organizations must address the human factors behind SPD performance rather than expecting frontline professionals to simply absorb ever-increasing complexity.

During National EVS Week, appreciation matters, but partnership matters more. Environmental services professionals bring infection prevention expertise and a unique understanding of the health care environment that can help identify barriers, improve cleaning and disinfection practices, and ultimately protect patients.

Nearly 4 months into the DRC's Bundibugyo virus disease outbreak, some indicators suggest transmission may be slowing. But shifting hotspots, treatment-center capacity problems, community deaths, and incomplete surveillance data show why national case totals alone cannot determine whether containment has been achieved.

Artificial intelligence can help IPs analyze surveillance data, identify patterns, improve training, and reduce repetitive work. Bassel Molaeb explains why AI literacy is becoming an important IPC competency while human validation, clinical context, and professional judgment remain essential.

A surface can look clean and still carry significant bioload. The new Bioload Exposure Metric Index (BEMI) aims to standardize ATP sampling and move surface hygiene toward a measurable cleanliness score. If we can't measure clean, how do we know we've achieved it?

How much linen is enough, and where does it all go? EVS, infection prevention, and laundry experts discuss PAR levels, linen loss, staff education, data, accountability, and building better reusable linen programs.

At AHE Exchange 2026, ICT spoke with experts representing commercial laundry services, EVS, and infection prevention about the systems behind a successful reusable linen program. They discuss linen quality, reject rates, unnecessary waste, frontline education, data, PAR levels, infection prevention oversight, and why strong relationships between health care facilities and their laundry providers matter.

A needlestick injury happens in seconds. Its cause may have started hours earlier. Amy Piser argues that getting closer to “sharps injury zero” requires health care organizations to stop focusing solely on the moment of injury and start examining the systems surrounding it.

Coffee cups aren't infectious. Yet ordinary trash can end up in regulated medical waste streams, increasing both costs and environmental impact. Ashley L. Perry, MS, explains how hospitals can improve waste segregation, scrutinize green claims, and balance sustainability with infection prevention.

If your USP <797> environmental monitoring program only identifies problems after an excursion, are you really in control? Rhonda Lintner outlines 3 levels of maturity: compliance, data trending, and genus-level identification.

There’s a bat in the hospital. Now what? Before anyone swats it, grabs it, or throws it away, infection prevention needs staff to understand one thing: That bat may be critical evidence in determining whether patients and employees need rabies PEP. One bat. One bad decision. A potentially enormous exposure investigation.