Healthcare Hygiene magazine February_2020 | Page 30

programs available in the United States, Canada, Mexico,
the European Union, Germany (in particular), Australia,
New Zealand, and Japan. The analysis will aid EVS and IPs
in identifying proper laundry (including reusable infection
prevention Healthcare-Grade-Ultra Microfiber©) and handling
for hygienically clean laundry outcomes.
An advisory board was established in the months immedi-
ately following the initial ESOP© Project committee meeting.
The board currently consists of more than 35 professionals,
including research PhDs, IPs, EVS professionals, teachers/
trainers, allied professionals, healthcare laundry professionals,
healthcare textile manufacturers, microbiological labs,
and a host of passionate and dedicated authorities in the
healthcare industry.
During the development of the Playbook and testing at
facilities across the U.S. and Canada, and one study site in
Kenya, significant improvements were noted, and gaps in
industry practices were identified. However, with the success
of the implementation of the ESOP© Project, another pause
must be taken, and questions asked.
Those inquiries include: “What products, processes,
systems, and guidelines have a lower net negative impact
on the environment and better patient outcomes?” “What
outweighs the overwhelming needs of providing patients
and staff with hygienic environments in which to recover and
work?” Will the actions meet the “Ethics of Mother Care?”
What is the Ethics of Mother Care? It is this: “Any action
or the contemplated actions of my peers or organization must
be good enough for my mother.” If they are not, they do not
pass the moral and ethical standards needed for healthcare.
Healthcare does not operate in a vacuum. Patients
must always benefit from treatment and care. The patient
should form the definition of benefit. Infection prevention,
environmental services, waste stream management, and
sustainability are a few healthcare disciplines must always
anticipate how those actions affect lives — both patients
and staff. The principles of medical ethics — respect for
autonomy, non-malfeasance, beneficence, justice, and
application are not just for physicians, nurses, and medical
researchers. The principles apply to everyone that receives
a paycheck from healthcare, including contractors, medical
supply chain professionals, and adjunct professionals such
as healthcare laundries, food purveyors, waste management
providers, and professional associations made up of all of
these professionals.
Nevertheless, too often, decisions have been made in
silos without regard to the first and only need - the patient.
Usually, the needs of the patient are put on a side-rail while
the ideas of supposed convenience or the motivation for
financial profit become thrust to the forefront of decision
making. Something was wrong and needed correction. A
departure from doing what was right to what was expedient
was happening in healthcare across the U.S.
The ESOP© Project Board looks forward to the next year,
where the readers of Healthcare Hygiene magazine will have
the opportunities to follow a diversity of thought leaders and
be exposed to a variety of ideas, processes, and procedures
all based upon science and data. Each month a component
30
What products, processes, systems, and
guidelines have a lower net negative
impact on the environment and better
patient outcomes?
of the Playbook will be featured that has is identified as
critical to the success of EVS/IP healthcare programs, with
a compendium review in the January 2021 article.
Currently, the news media is bringing awareness and
urgent attention to the novel coronavirus, now being
recognized as 2019-nCoV. Coronaviruses are a large family
of viruses whose effects range from causing the common
cold to triggering much more severe diseases, such as severe
acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS.
Worries continue to grow that the China quarantine is
not enough. With international air travel, deadly microbes
emerging from other countries could easily infiltrate our
communities, schools, and places of work. The interim
guidance from the CDC 3 recommends eight critical steps to
minimize or prevent transmission of respiratory pathogens like
Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV).
For EVS technicians, identification and patient placement
are vital. Utilizing standard, contact, and airborne precautions
with appropriate PPE, hand hygiene, caution around Aero-
sol-Generating procedures, and using Healthcare-Grade-Ultra
Microfiber© for adequate removal of microbes from
contaminated surfaces along with EPA Registered Hospital
Grade Disinfectants with a label claim for (MERS-CoV) or
human coronavirus is necessary.
With the increase, hospital administrators, IPs, nursing
services, physicians, and EVS professionals face an increase
in surveillance reporting and efforts needed to ensure
hygienic environments.
Join us for a featured look into the world of
environmental services and infection prevention
over the next year. We want to share with you
a video from Loma Linda University Medical
Center which illustrates the acceptance and
LLUMC
enthusiasm exhibited by so many LLUMC
VIDEO
professionals whose one purpose is improving
the outcomes and lives of patients. They truly understand
that a patient is a person first with a life worth living and
they will continue being a person long after the cease being
a patient. 
John Scherberger, FAHE is the owner of Healthcare Risk
Mitigation in Spartanburg, S.C.  He is a subject matter expert
in healthcare environmental services, healthcare linen and
laundry operations, and infection prevention. 
References:
1. https://www.cdc.gov/csels/dsepd/ss1978/lesson1/section10.html
2. https://www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/biggest-threats.html
3. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/mers/infection-prevention-control.
html#preparedness
february 2020 • www.healthcarehygienemagazine.com