This facilities and engineering employee from NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City took ASHE’s whiteboard challenge in 2013 by sharing his thoughts via social media.
Photo courtesy of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital

Facility managers often are unsung heroes who work behind the scenes to create and maintain a safe, healing environment for patients, staff and visitors. During National Health Care Facilities & Engineering Week Oct. 19–25, however, ASHE encourages facility managers to step into the spotlight and be recognized for all they do to optimize the health care physical environment.

Take time during this week to recognize your staff as the important members of the health care team they are. ASHE is planning several events to recognize members, including free webinars and giveaways. If you aren’t already an ASHE member, join now to take advantage of these opportunities. More information can be found at www.ashe.org/engineeringweek.

Looking for ideas to recognize the facility professionals in your organization?

Take our whiteboard challenge. ASHE is planning a fun whiteboard challenge on social media for the week. Take a picture of yourself holding a poster, piece of paper or whiteboard stating why you are proud to be a health care facility professional. Post your pictures on social media using the #Health EngWeek hashtag and share with ASHE so we can retweet or share your posts. Follow @ASHEAHA on Twitter or connect with ASHE on Facebook at www.facebook.com/asheaha.

Provide National Health Care Facilities & Engineering Week logo items. Increase visibility of your staff by providing logo items such as shirts and hats for staff members to wear throughout the week. Gift items also are available to recognize the work facility professionals do. Visit www.ashe.org/engineeringweek to view merchandise.

Sponsor a lunch, breakfast or open house. Invite hospital staff and visitors to take a tour of your department and create a photo album or poster of pictures that show the facility staff at work. This can be an opportunity to promote better understanding of the department and the duties facility professionals perform.

Create a trivia contest. Throughout the week, ask hospital staff questions about your department or the facility, such as “How long does it take for the facility’s emergency power generators to kick on?” or “What is the total number of square feet of your facility?” Announce the answers and contest winners in your employee newsletter.

Draw attention to your department. Create a banner to hang at the entrance of your hospital to draw attention to National Health Care Facilities & Engineering Week or purchase official ASHE posters to place throughout your facility. This helps to draw attention to your department and the work facility professionals do.

Get the word out beyond your facility. Involve your marketing and public relations department to promote National Health Care Facilities & Engineering Week both in the facility and in your community. Send a press release to local newspapers or ask for a proclamation from your mayor or city council. Sample press releases and proclamation guidelines are available at www.ashe.org/engineeringweek.

Important monographs available

ASHE makes important resources available to members. Following are two recently released monographs that can be accessed by ASHE members as free PDFs at www.ashe.org/resources/ management_monographs.

• Life Safety Code Comparison. The 2012 edition of the National Fire Protection Association’s Life Safety Code offers new design and compliance options for health care facilities that didn’t exist in previous editions. This ASHE monograph provides an exhaustive list of the changes in the new edition and a detailed comparison with the 2000 and 2009 editions.

• Room Ventilation and Airborne Disease. This ASHE monograph examines research on how room ventilation affects airborne-disease transmission in health care facilities. Farhad Memarzadeh, Ph.D., PE, examines findings that consider the effects of air changes per hour on infection transmission.

Design guidelines available to industry through ASHE

The 2014 editions of the Facility Guidelines Institute’s Guidelines for Design and Construction of Hospitals and Outpatient Facilities and the Guidelines for Design and Construction of Residential Health, Care, and Support Facilities can be purchased through ASHE at www.ASHEstore.com.