ST. LOUIS – Connecting People, Partners and Possibilities is the theme of this year’s annual conference of the American Society for Healthcare Environmental Services (ASHES), slated for Sept. 30-Oct. 4 here at America’s Center and the Renaissance St. Louis Grand and Suites Hotel.
The organization promises engaging general sessions, track-specific educational seminars, a 150-exhibit marketplace and more intended to connect healthcare environmental services and housekeeping professionals to other healthcare disciplines and to tools needed to perform their jobs more effectively.
There are seven educational tracks: Regulatory Compliance, Design and Construction, Environmental Sanitation, Waste Management, Textile Management, Administration and Finance, and, for the first time, Transport Management. Seminars within the Textile Management track are:
• Assuring Linen Quality – Healthcare Laundry Accreditation Council (HLAC) Accreditation Process – Executive Director Chris Isely will discuss the process, identify steps to prepare a facility for accreditation, demonstrate value of the accreditation and describe quality standards of an accredited facility.
• Now You See It; Now You Don’t – A Campaign to Stop Linen Loss – Encompass Textiles & Interiors’ Janice Larson and Heidi Ayala headline this session designed to provide hospital linen managers and environmental services (EVS) managers with tools to help them identify how and where linen losses are most likely to occur and how to involve linen end users in preventing and eliminating unnecessary losses.
• Statistical Linen Management – Using Utilization Data to Effect Change – Larson and Ayala also headline this session designed for EVS managers who’ve recently installed a linen management software program. Participants will review and analyze data to affect positive change in linen utilization; compare data to industry benchmarking information; and learn how to present to EVS and nursing staff in order to generate action.
• Not Too Hot to Handle! – Linda Freeman, director of academic affairs for the Association for Linen Management (ALM), will provide a look at regulatory alerts related to hazardous drugs and how to keep laundry and environmental services staff safe from exposure to these drugs.
Several networking events are also planned during the course of the five-day conference.
Member registration by Aug. 24 costs $495; nonmembers pay $675. Those rates each increase by $100 after that date. Preregistration closes on Sept. 14.
ASHES has contracted for rooms at a discounted $140-per-night rate at the Renaissance. Those interested can reserve a room at the reduced rate by calling 800-HOTELS-1 or by visiting the hotel’s website.
For more information about the conference, visit the society’s website at www.ashes.org or call 312-422-3860.
Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Matt Poe at [email protected].