Environmental Services

The Infection Control Today® environmental services (EVS) page recognizes the team responsible for sanitation and cleaning within the health care system. EVS personnel are an integral component of infection prevention in the hospital, working closely together with the health care staff to ensure patient safety and hygiene standards. ICT® keeps a close eye on developments in the environmental services industry and reports on any peer-reviewed literature. This page also features video interviews with EVS and the professionals who interact with them.

Weekly Rounds with Infection Control Today

April 16, 2021

Take 5 minutes to catch up on Infection Control Today®’s highlights for the week ending April 17.

Looking to Fit Ultraviolet Disinfection into Hospital Systems

April 16, 2021

Ultraviolet light should be used in concert with traditional cleaning and disinfection procedures utilized by environmental services teams, study’s author maintains.

Hot Water Might Disinfect Sinks Better Than Chlorine

April 15, 2021

Emilie Bédard, PhD: “We worked in collaboration with infection prevention, environmental services…. We had a multi-disciplinary team to make sure that we would look at all aspects of this approach.”

Quick Action Keeps NICU Respiratory Illness in Check

April 15, 2021

The multidisciplinary team included NICU nurses, physicians, nurse practitioners and, perhaps most important of all, environmental services personnel. “We met with the environmental services staff, and we explained to them that this is a critical situation in the neonatal ICU. And this cannot spread more.”

Expert Charts CDC’s Updated Building Ventilation Guidelines

March 30, 2021

It is my advice that building managers seriously consider these measures, many of which are low cost and generate universal prevention measures.

Pathogens Underfoot Can Floor Patients, Health Care Workers

March 28, 2021

Evidence shows that bacteria on floors can be resuspended into the air with a potential of inhalation, swallowing, or contamination of surfaces and hands.

How COVID-19 Spread the Word About Infection Prevention

March 18, 2021

Sharon Ward-Fore, MS, MT(ASCP), CIC: "We’ve learned the hard way that restaurants, office settings, hair salons, fitness centers, and schools have really suffered for the lack of guidance by professionals like infection preventionists."

How One Long-Term Care Facility Held Off COVID-19

March 09, 2021

Difficulties in communicating with the elderly necessitate close speaking. These circumstances are a ripe atmosphere for spreading respiratory diseases. While residents were largely isolated from the broader population, their caretakers were not.

Robots Disinfect Hospital Rooms with Ultra-Violet Light

February 17, 2021

In response to COVID-19, companies manufacture robots that would complement the cleaning and disinfection work done by environmental services teams in hospitals. Might the machines also one day take their jobs?

Intense Infection Control Stops C. Auris Spread

February 03, 2021

“Infection control measures, including surveillance, education, cleaning/disinfection, patient cohorting, isolation, and hand hygiene, effectively contained the outbreak; it was declared over within 2 months.”