Inside HFM

Getting back to basics

ASHE President kicks off 2020 with a focus on safety and emergency preparedness
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Welcome to a new year of Health Facilities Management! I’m excited to invite you to explore this issue and to share how proud I am to be leading the American Society for Health Care Engineering (ASHE) in 2020. ASHE covered a lot of ground last year, and I’m looking forward to keeping up the momentum — and I also want to make sure we are building on solid foundations.

Sometimes, we can get so focused on others’ safety that we can let our own team’s safety slip. My vision focuses on getting back to the basics of safety and emergency management. This is a goal I have for ASHE and for my own staff. It is important that we don’t forget the safety of our own team members when we think about the safety of our patients and visitors. During this year, I hope to identify upcoming trends in safety and investigate best practices for approaching them.

I want to develop new simple and effective safety management tools and resources that ASHE members can use to take care of their own. ASHE is focused on meeting member needs even as they change over time, and I encourage you to let us know what your needs are and to get involved.

One great way to get involved is by checking out our volunteer opportunities page on ASHE’s website. You should also check out the awesome resources that ASHE already has, like our upcoming 2020 education programs, the PDC and Annual conferences, the My ASHE online community, our many publications and the magazine you’re reading now.

With these new and ongoing resources, our members will continue building toward recognition as experts in the field and leaders in their own facilities and others. In this issue of Health Facilities Management, for instance, you’ll read about the winners of the ASHE Excellence in Health Care Facility Management Award. I want the competition for that award to grow every year, and I want to provide the tools to make that happen.

Happy new year, Health Facilities Management readers — let’s make it one for the books!

Jeffrey E. Henne, FASHE, CHSP-FSM, CHEP, CHC, ASHE president.