Clean Hospitals’ Next Chapter: Access, Collaboration, and a Global Push Ahead of Clean Hospitals Day

Clean Hospitals has a new CEO and a widened mission. “I’m excited—and there’s a lot of work to do—but I have a lot of support,” said Alexander Peters, PhD, from Geneva, Switzerland, in this interview with Infection Control Today^® (ICT^®). Under her leadership, the organization has revamped governance and opened its doors to health care facilities worldwide. “The board now includes some of the best people in health care environmental hygiene…Brett Mitchell, PhD; Stephanie Dancer, PhD; Martin Kiernan, MPH, MClin Res; David J. Weber, MD, MPH; and Pierre Parneix, MD,…a strong academic team,” she noted.

Clean Hospitals has had a significant shift: making membership affordable for hospitals, especially in low- and middle-income settings. “We’re not asking for a high fee,” Peters, who is also a member of ICT’s Editorial Advisory Board, said. Dues are scaled to World Bank income level—“anywhere from 500 to 25 Swiss francs a year—and if a facility can’t afford it, we have a little funding to help.” The aim is to create an active learning network. “We’ll host events so facilities can exchange on environmental hygiene and hand hygiene with experts, talk through challenges, and figure out how to address issues in their own settings.”

Peters is also pushing hard on partnerships. “We can’t sit in silos,” she emphasized. “I’m working to make sure we all know what everyone else is doing and align on what’s beneficial to everybody.” New working groups are already forming.

Fresh from the ICPIC conference in Geneva, she described the tone as sober but hopeful: “About 1,000 people from about 100 countries came. This year’s theme was how the world can move forward from what’s happening in the US and regroup globally. It didn’t feel hopeless—people, including many from the US, were eager to forge new partnerships and keep this a truly global effort. Diseases don’t stop at borders, and infection preventionists can’t either.”

Clean Hospitals Day 2025

Mark your calendar: Clean Hospitals Day is October 20, 2025, with the theme “Human Factors and Collaboration.” The campaign raises worldwide awareness of health care environmental hygiene and offers toolkits to help facilities celebrate and improve practice.

Peters’ message is clear: Lower the barriers, link arms across organizations, and keep the focus on the people and practices that make care safer every day, everywhere.