PROGRAMME 2024

Healthcare environmental hygiene: the Moment(um) is now

Co-chairs: Professor Didier Pittet and Dr. Pierre Parneix

Location: Amtrium Stage

Thursday 16 May 2024

09:30 - 09:40 hrs

Welcome to the Healthcare Cleaning Forum

Speaker: Andreas Voss, The Netherlands
Professor and Chair, Medical Microbiology and Infection Control, UMCG.
Location: Amtrium Stage
Healthcare Cleaning Forum Andreas Voss

09:40 - 10:00 hrs

Clean Hospitals: bringing HEH into the spotlight

Speaker: Prof. Didier Pittet, Switzerland
Professor of medicine (hon), Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva
Chair, Clean Hospitals
Former director, Infection Control Program, University of Geneva Hospitals and Faculty of Medicine, Geneva, Switzerland.

  • Healthcare environmental hygiene is the next frontier in infection prevention and control, and recent advances in studying it have cemented its importance globally.
  • Healthcare facilities’ environmental hygiene programs are often lacking, but there is no "one size fits all" approach to improvement. 
  • Organisations such as Clean Hospitals, which bring the public and academic sectors together, are able to help raise the quality and visibility of healthcare environmental hygiene on a global level.
 Healthcare Cleaning Forum Pittet

10:00 - 10:20 hrs

Why you should help your clients assess their environmental hygiene programs and how to do it (HEHSAF presentation)

Speaker: Dr. Alexandra Peters, Switzerland
Scientific Lead for Clean Hospitals
Institute of Global Health
University of Geneva, Switzerland.

  • Healthcare facilities often have trouble identifying where their environmental hygiene programs are lacking and how to improve them.
  • Using a validated self-assessment tool such as the Clean Hospitals HEHSAF can help these facilities identify specific areas for improvement.
  • Industry members can use this tool to better position themselves in respect to the healthcare facility’s needs as well as use it to help develop comprehensive solutions for their clients.
Healthcare Cleaning Forum Alexandra Peters

10:20 - 10:40 hrs

Sustainability at the heart of cleaning

Speaker: Clare Nash RN, BSc, MSc, United Kingdom
Registered nurse
Head of Clinical Products Management
Black Country Alliance, UK.

  • Learn why environmental sustainability is so important in all health and care settings. 
  • The impact environmental cleaning can have on achieving the United Nations sustainable development goals.  
  • Explore green terminology and spot potential supplier greenwashing.
  • Use the speaker’s innovative tool to make informed choices about environmental cleaning methods and approaches.
Healthcare Cleaning Forum Clare Nash

10:40 - 11:00 hrs

Break

11:00 - 11:20 hrs

Lessons in implementation: Improving HEH in your own hospital

Speaker: Prof. Brett Mitchell, Australia
Clinician researcher in the field of infection prevention and control Professor of Nursing and Health Services Research, Avondale University
Professor of Nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Monash University
Honorary Professor, School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Newcastle
Infection Research Program co-lead, Hunter Medical Research Institute
Conjoint, Central Coast Local Health District, NSW.

  • Audit, feedback and recognition are critical.
  • Education and training, often talked about, often forgotten.
  • Risk assessments and organisational culture: knowing your consumers, staff and workplace.
Healthcare Cleaning Forum Brett Mitchell

11:20 - 11:40 hrs

What’s new in HEH innovation: special focus on room disinfection

Speaker: Edmée Bowles, The Netherlands
Clinical microbiologist
Head of Infection Prevention
Department of Medical Microbiology
Radboudumc Center for Infectious Diseases

  • Manual cleaning is essential prior to disinfection, even with automated disinfection systems.
  • Adequately executed UV-C disinfection ensures consistent disinfection quality. 
  • Beware of the shadow!
Healthcare Cleaning Forum Edmee Bowles

11:40 - 12:00 hrs

Back to basics- Behavior change and why it’s important to remember that we can do a lot with a little

Speaker: Martin Kiernan, United Kingdom
Visiting Professor, Richard Wells Research Centre, University of West London.

  • Changing healthcare workers' behaviors and attitudes towards hygiene practices can foster a culture of safety and hygiene that starts with each individual's commitment to following established protocols, regardless of their role.
  • Ongoing education and training programs that focus on motivation can reinforce the importance of basic hygiene practices and can improve compliance and awareness among staff. Program effectiveness can be measured by monitoring compliance with hygiene practices and providing constructive, non-punitive feedback.
  • Efficient use of available resources can maintain high hygiene standards and cost-effective solutions can enhance environmental cleaning without the need for extensive new investments, thereby doing a lot with a little.
Healthcare Cleaning Forum Martin Kiernan

12:00 - 12:30 hrs

Panel of speakers and closure of the morning programme

Chair: Didier Pittet
Interactive question and answer session. Participants can join a live moderated session via SLIDO and have their questions answered directly.
 Healthcare Cleaning Forum Pittet

12:30 - 13:30 hrs

Lunch

13:30 - 14:30 hrs

Track 1: How can artificial intelligence revolutionise healthcare cleaning?

Chair: Paul Harleman
Speaker: Christoph Zimmermann
Location: Amtrium Stage

AI is skyrocketing, surprising even experts with its rapid advancements. But what exactly is AI, and how can it transform professional healthcare cleaning/disinfection now and in the future? Christoph Zimmermann, a certified AI-trainer with a background in professional cleaning, holds the keys to unlocking these possibilities.

Track 2: Healthcare Cleaning Insights – Learnings from 1,000s of Healthcare Cleaners using a digital cleaning platform.

Speaker: Bill Bassett
Location: Room L103/L104  

This session will highlight:
• What percentage of rooms have not been cleaned across the sector
• What are the average clean times
• What areas takes longer than average and why
• What percentage of room are rushed
• Do your schedules work for your staff
• What extra work was allocated to your staff
• What risks are they facing
• What allocation of reactive cleans do they have capacity for
• How often are you managing without all shifts being filled

 

Track 3: Guided tours at Interclean

Location: start from Amtrium foyer
The Healthcare Cleaning Forum is co-located with Interclean; the world’s leading tradefair for cleaning and hygiene professionals. At the tradefair a special ‘Healthcare Cleaning’ segment offers innovative products and solutions by exhibitors, demonstrations on healthcare cleaning in a hospital setting and presentations and debates on ‘Healthcare & Hygiene Stage’.

The guided tours offer themed overviews of innovations in Healthcare Cleaning technologies. The tours are organised and guided by expert professionals of NVZ, the Dutch association for Soaps, Detergents and Maintenance Products.

14:30 - 15:00 hrs

Break

15:00 - 16:00 hrs

Track 4: Lecture and round table with international IPC experts | Breakout-session

Panel discussion on what we can learn from different ways of approaching HEH around the world.

Chair: Professor Didier Pittet
Panelists: International IPC experts including: Dr. Pierre Parneix (France), Brett Mitchell (Australia), Clare Nash (UK), Alexandra Peters (Switzerland).
Location: Amtrium Stage

Introductory lecture (10 minutes)
Speaker: Professor Didier Pittet

Panelists will discuss:
• The common struggles in HEH across the globe
• What specific methods and elements can be shared and implemented elsewhere
• The discussion will include a live Q&A session

Track 5: (scientific) insights and experiences on automated room disinfection | In cooperation with VHIG ( the Dutch professional association for infection prevention)

Chair: Martin Kiernan, MSc
Location: Room L103/104

Content: Due to shrinking budgets, evolving insights in epidemiology and pressing labour shortages, there is a rising interest for automated room disinfection. In this track Mariëtte Lokate, Els Rooijakkers and Edmee Bowles share their insights on the use of automated room disinfection followed by Questions & Answers.

 

Track 6: Guided tours at Interclean

Location: start from Amtrium foyer
The Healthcare Cleaning Forum is co-located with Interclean; the world’s leading tradefair for cleaning and hygiene professionals. At the tradefair a special ‘Healthcare Cleaning’ segment offers innovative products and solutions by exhibitors, demonstrations on healthcare cleaning in a hospital setting and presentations and debates on ‘Healthcare & Hygiene Stage’.

The guided tours offer themed overviews of innovations in Healthcare Cleaning technologies. The tours are organised and guided by expert professionals of NVZ, the Dutch association for Soaps, Detergents and Maintenance Products.

* programme subject to change
** accreditation for VHIG members applied for

The HCF programme is developed in close cooperation with Clean Hospitals®.

The HCF plenary programme explores the current state of the art knowledge on healthcare environmental hygiene, as well as its future development. The coffee and lunch breaks provide possibilities to discuss and network with delegates and keynote speakers. In the afternoon, several tracks allow for deeper exploration into a number of key topics. Guided tours offer you the opportunity to see the most innovative solutions at the Interclean Amsterdam exhibition and to attend demonstrations at the Healthcare Cleaning Lab.

Watch the Healthcare Cleaning Forum 2022 recordings