By HFT Editorial Staff

The Association for the Health Care Environment (AHE), of the American Hospital Association, together with Tork, have announced the recipients of the 2021 Environmental Services (EVS) Department of the Year Award. 

The Environmental Services Department of the Year Award provides national recognition for the significant contributions made by an environmental services department to the overall patient experience and achieving a health care organization's mission. It highlights the outstanding achievements of a cutting-edge environmental services team in maintaining high levels of performance in cleaning, disinfecting, infection prevention, environmental sustainability and stewardship, technology use, patient satisfaction, education and training in critical areas. 

This year’s recipients of the EVS Department of the Year Award are:     

250-499 Beds: Geisinger Community Medical Center – Scranton, Pa. 

500+ beds: Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital/Cottage Health – Santa Barbara, Calif.  

This year’s honorable mentions are:

250-499 beds: CaroMont Regional Medical Center – Gastonia, N.C. 

500+ beds: Sutter Medical Center Sacramento – Sacramento, Calif.   

“This year was particularly challenging for environmental service professionals due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” said AHE President Brad Winne. “Every year, our award judges review highly qualified applicants; however, this year they were especially impressed with the volume of innovative EVS teams who had to create new ways to enhance their performance and remain focused on environmental sustainability and stewardship.”

There were no recipients this year for the under 250 bed category.