Clean Hospitals is an international Centre of Excellence in Public Health
Acts for a high quality of care and optimal protection and safety of patients and hospital staff
Commitment and actions are based on the Values of:
Integrity – Sharing – Transparency – Respect
Clean Hospitals seeks to harness the collective strengths of industry, academia, hospitals, governmental bodies and key stakeholders in order to collaborate across disciplines and interest groups.
We aim to use the knowledge and momentum generated by our research and working groups to raise industry standards and increase the visibility of the hospital environment in patient care.
The purpose of the initiative is to increase patient safety and bring international attention to the need for an increased focus on hospital environmental hygiene.
Although the hospital environment tends to be one of the most understudied and underfunded areas in healthcare, there is enough literature in the field to prove that a well-maintained patient environment is crucial for preventing the spread of healthcare-associated infections and antimicrobial resistance. Beyond patients, hospital environment hygiene also has a direct impact on the lives of the people working in the hospitals, as well as a broader impact on communities and the environment.
These improvements in hospital environmental hygiene will benefit public health by lowering rates of healthcare-associated infections, reducing antimicrobial resistance, and protecting hospital staff as well as the larger environment.
Clean Hospitals aims to support these objectives by:
- Increasing hospitals’ awareness of the importance of ensuring a hygienic environment
- Building up the body of evidence demonstrating the impact of improved environmental hygiene in healthcare settings on patient/worker safety
- Aligning knowledge and procedures for improving healthcare environmental hygiene recommendations across geographic regions and resource levels
- Improving how hospitals calculate the cost/benefit of investing in better cleaning products and services
- Championing high-quality products/processes for environmental hygiene, including for surfaces, instrument disinfection/sterilization, air and water control, laundry and textiles, waste management and hand hygiene
- Developing comprehensive trainings and education programs
- Enhancing corporate social responsibility in the companies that produce or provide products and services for healthcare environmental hygiene
Our Goals
- Making healthcare facilities safer for patients through improved environmental hygiene
- Protecting healthcare facility staff as well as the larger environment
- Improving public health by lowering rates of healthcare-associated infections
- Reducing antimicrobial resistance
- Connecting stakeholders and leading experts from around the world
- Raising sectorial standards and increasing the visibility of the impact of the hospital environment in patient care
- Ensuring that true sustainability becomes a major goal for environmental hygiene programs
Environmental hygiene includes all aspects of the healthcare environment related to infectious risks to patients and caregivers, including environmental cleaning, hand hygiene, water and air control, laundry and textiles, waste management and the sterilization and reprocessing of medical devices