The Association for Cleaning and Facility Solutions, ISSA, revealed the introduction of a comprehensive, three-phased training curriculum: the ISSA Healthcare Environmental Hygiene Professional Certification (HEHP). This certification is targeted at in-house healthcare environmental service teams and all health service providers responsible for cleaning, disinfection, and patient care. The program has been meticulously designed to standardize environmental hygiene norms across healthcare settings.
This development is timely as healthcare environments continue to grapple with some unyielding challenges such as Healthcare Associated Infections (HAIs), antimicrobial resistance, and resurging diseases. To underscore the severity of these challenges, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates that approximately 3.2% of hospitalized patients encounter at least one healthcare associated infection daily. These infections result in avoidable healthcare expenses running into billions annually, accompanied by extended hospital stays, repeat admissions, reputational damage, and operational stress.
The HEHP program was developed through a symbiotic collaboration between environmental service leaders, infection preventionists, nursing professionals, and healthcare industry pundits who leveraged their collective knowledge and experience to address these pain points in the healthcare industry. It merges current scientific knowledge, customer input, and evidence-backed cleaning, and disinfection standards. The certification caters to hospitals, long-term care centers, ambulatory care centers, and other healthcare establishments seeking to modernize and standardize their approach to environmental hygiene training and improvement.
The course is conducted on-site at healthcare facilities and subdivided into classroom learning and hands-on practicums. Emphasis is placed on the amalgamation of infection prevention principles and the science behind such work across all levels. We should underline the significance of environmental hygiene in infection prevention, patient trust, and overall healthcare quality as mentioned by the ISSA Executive Director, Kim Althoff.
The ISSA Healthcare Environmental Hygiene Professional Certification seeks to help healthcare organizations transition from task-oriented functions to strategic approaches aimed at augmenting patient safety and operational success. In contrast to conventional healthcare cleaning education programs, the HEHP adopts a comprehensive and integrated methodology for improving environmental hygiene. Fundamental components of the course include securing improved outcomes, managing staffing challenges and escalating operational costs. The course director, Linda Lybert, emphasized that the program will assist healthcare facilities in establishing a culture of environmental hygiene excellence that is quantifiable, sustainable, and directly related to patient care.
More details about the ISSA Healthcare Environmental Hygiene Program are available at www.issa.com/hehp. ISSA, headquarted in Rosemont, Ill., USA, operates regional offices in Milan, Italy; Toronto, Canada; Sydney, Australia; Seoul, South Korea; and Shanghai, China and is committed to promoting cleaning as an investment in human health, the environment, and improved profitability.