Healthcare Hygiene magazine February_2020 | Page 29

Project committee) recommended some key elements
for the improvement plan and provided tools to support
each element.”
Those elements include:
• Enhancement of the cleaning assessment program
• Enhancement of EVS reporting to the infection
control committee
• Identification and pre-training local EVS super-trainers
• EVS shadow training program by super trainers with
a 16-point checklist
• Enhancement of EVS recognition program
Participation in the program includes a voucher for one
EVS technician to attend the AHE Trainer program for Certified
Healthcare Environmental Services Technician (T-CHEST). The
train-the-trainer certification equips the EVS professional to
train everyone on their team.
T-CHEST and CHEST are crucial for EVS staff to know only
the “how” to perform their duties effectively, but the “why”
it is essential to perform their duties properly. Barnes believes
certification for T-CHEST and CHEST is crucial: “There is a
need for expansion of AHE training at every hospital. I hope
that this becomes a regulatory requirement at some point.”
While the program is DIY, it is not without support. Just
some of the things the ESOP© team facilitate is:
• Planning a kick-off event to engage stakeholders
at each hospital
• Multidisciplinary site visits at the end of each kickoff to
tour the facility and provide input from experts in infection
prevention and environmental services
• Weekly meetings with each hospital team to support
their efforts
• Planning their exit luncheon to review progress and
plan for continuing/sustaining improvement.
• Coordinating a project evaluation via survey monkey.
As we have seen, the ESOP© Project currently has 10
hospitals in the process of implementing the Playbook, and
the first three hospitals to complete the pilot have demon-
strated promising results. These results include AHE training,
enhancing the EVS staff recognition program which provides
morale, partnership, and ownership by staff, improving staff
quality assessments of cleaning processes and outcomes,
accountability in collaboration with the nursing department,
validated cleaning responsibility matrix, upgraded room and
operating room turnaround times to ensure patients receive
timely and effective treatment, and improved and optimized
cleaning and disinfection processes with evidenced-based
tools, and validated quality outcomes.
Advisory board members have said the training and
delineating responsibilities between nursing and ES staff
duties for cleaning and disinfection is beneficial. The AHE
certified training programs, demonstrations, and hands-on
training identified as some of the most important aspects
for frontline ES staff about the Project.
The ESOP© Project allows everyone to take a step back
from the daily operational hustle and analyze at what
accomplishments and the processes involved. Management
and supervisors take deeper dives into policies, training,
www.healthcarehygienemagazine.com • february 2020
The long term goal: Sharing the ES
Optimization Playbook throughout IP
and ES communities to facilitate project
replication at other hospitals to improve
patient outcomes and lower cost of care.
application, and proper education on the tools used in the
cleaning and disinfecting procedures.
The ideal and desires to excel in a dedicated group of
IPs and EVS professionals were robust and durable. Yet,
improvements need implementing, given the challenges
within the healthcare environment of care.
After initial efforts and successes, the ESOP© Project
moved the Playbook to a web-based platform. Participants
suggested simplifying the number of steps initially identified
as needed for the Playbook as too many people were wary
and quite overwhelmed by the initial ten steps of the
Playbook. Thus, a review — based upon feedback from all
stakeholders — was undertaken, and a four-step process
enacted. Surveys were initiated to expand beyond EVS and
look at the perceptions of IPs and clinicians, and, most
significantly, added an expert advisory panel to support the
study sites. The survey indicated what needed focus. Then,
based upon the results of the study, experienced advisors in
the identified areas were offered to the study sites.
Notable, too, was the introduction of standardized
protocols for ATP and fluorescent marker systems, as well
as scholarship vouchers for AHE signature training programs
included for participating study sites classes.
One substantial piece of information provided from
the survey results involved misinformation and variability
concerning disposable and reusable products, the need to
define the content and makeup of disposable and reusable
products, particularly products alleging to be “microfiber,”
and proper product testing and evaluation of wiping and
mopping products used by EVS and nursing departments.
Extensive independent laboratory testing of both disposable
and reusable “microfiber” was undertaken to verify manu-
facturer claims to actual results.
Actress Alicia Cole, who was afflicted by multiple
life-threatening and life-altering HAIs, was approached,
and she volunteered to serve on the ESOP© Project advisory
board. She is advocating for advanced legislation and
reporting of HAIs, improving patient care environments,
assuring hygienic healthcare conditions for all care, and
improving the patient experience. Along with Sandra Rials,
the national training director at AHE, they implemented a
patient empathy component to the project and the EVS
impact on patient perception of the quality of care.
Also, Lynne Sehulster, PhD, formerly CDC HICPAC
co-author of the Guidelines for Infection Control in Health-
care Facilities (2003), and a laundry and linen expert, has
developed a comparative analysis of CDC/CMS, laundry
accreditation, and certification guidelines. The extensive
comparative analysis is of accreditation and certification
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