Clean Hospitals

The association aims to optimize, with a global approach, the quality of care and ensure patient safety. Clean Hospitals works towards this goal by: a) making healthcare facilities safer for patients through improved environmental hygiene. Environmental hygiene includes all aspects of the care environment related to infectious risks for patients and caregivers, including maintenance of the care environment, hand hygiene, water and air quality control, laundry and textile maintenance, waste management, and sterilization and good practices for reprocessing medical devices; b) protecting healthcare personnel and the hospital environment in its broadest sense; c) improving public health by reducing healthcare-associated infection rates; d) reducing antimicrobial resistance; e) connecting stakeholders and recognized experts worldwide; f) optimizing industry standards and increasing visibility of the impact of the hospital environment on patient care quality; g) promoting effective sustainability as a major goal of environmental hygiene programs. The association strives to achieve these goals through the following means: a) raising awareness among hospitals of the importance of ensuring a comprehensive hygiene policy; b) establishing a scientific database demonstrating the impact of improved environmental hygiene in healthcare facilities on patient and staff safety; c) standardizing knowledge and procedures to improve recommendations for environmental hygiene in healthcare settings, in all geographic areas and levels of resources; d) optimizing the way hospitals calculate the cost-benefit ratio when investing in better cleaning products and associated services; e) promoting high-quality products and processes for environmental hygiene, including surface treatment, cleaning, disinfection, and sterilization of instruments, air and water quality control, laundry and textile maintenance, waste management, and hand hygiene; f) developing awareness and training programs; g) strengthening the social responsibility of companies that produce or provide products and services applicable to environmental hygiene in healthcare settings.