Focus: Environmental Services

Environmental services technician certification proves its worth

Certification also helps decrease infection rates in hospitals


The Certified Health Care Environmental Services Technician (CHEST), launched in 2015. Since then, a survey has indicated there has been a decrease in several infection rates, according to an article on the Health Facilities Management website.

For instance, after the training there was a 3 percent decrease in Clostridium difficile rates. 

The program also helped improve HCAHPS scores, as the average number of patients at the facilities surveyed who reported their bathroom was “always” clean jumped from 69 percent to 79 percent. 

The program has also resulted in an average decrease of 7 percent in staff turnover rates.

Read the article.



June 17, 2020


Topic Area: Environmental Services


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