|Articles|July 19, 2018

AHE Announces Winners of 2018 Environmental Services Department of the Year Award

The Association for the Healthcare Environment (AHE), of the American Hospital Association, has announced the recipients of the 2018 Environmental Services (ES) Department of the Year Award.

The Environmental Services Department of the Year Award provides national recognition for the significant contributions made by an environmental services department to the overall patient experience and achieving a healthcare organization's mission. It highlights the outstanding achievements of a leading-edge environmental services team in maintaining high levels of performance in cleaning, disinfecting, infection prevention, environmental sustainability and stewardship, use of technology, patient satisfaction, education, and training in critical areas.

This year’s recipients of the ES Department of the Year Award are:

• 1-249 beds: Jane Philips Medical Center/St. Johns Health System -- Bartlesville, Oklahoma
• 250-499 beds: Children’s Medical Center – Dallas, Texas
• 500+ beds: Memorial Medical Center -- Springfield, Illinois

AHE has bestowed Honorable Mentions upon the following:

• 1-249 beds: Wentworth-Douglass Hospital – Dover, New Hampshire
• 250-499 beds: Woman’s Hospital – Baton Rouge, Louisiana
• 500+ beds: New York Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center – New York, New York and Hackensack University Medical Center – Hackensack, New Jersey

All awards will be presented at EXCHANGE 2018 September 23-26 in Columbus, Ohio.

Tork sponsored the 2018 Environmental Services Department of the Year Award.

Source: AHE


Related to this article

Infection preventionists in full PPE with children in DRC.  (Image credit: author with AI)
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.
Dyan Troxell, MSN, RN, director of clinical education at HandCraft Linen Services; J.J. Odom, MBA, CHESP, CMIP, T-CHEST, university director of buildings and grounds for UConn Health and chair-elect of the AHE Board; and Jenna Rivers, MPH, CPH, CIC, manager of infection prevention and control at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida.
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.