Milestones of success

I had a terrific time connecting with colleagues at the first-ever Health Care Facilities Innovation Conference™ in Anaheim, Calif., in July. What a wonderful reminder of all the hard work, visionary thinking and camaraderie that members of the American Society for Health Care Engineering (ASHE) bring to optimizing health care facilities for the patients, families and caregivers they serve!

I am thrilled to join fellow ASHE leaders as we continue to work on the association’s 2025-2027 Strategic Plan. We are actively tackling many of the obstacles we face today and in the near future: the rapid change of the health care field, burnout and the shortage of technical staff — and, of course, building the pipeline of facilities professionals through partnerships with universities and technical schools and continuing to invest in internships and mentoring programs. 

As we prepare for that future, it is also vital that we acknowledge our successes. At the conference, we celebrated the achievements of several ASHE members, teams, facilities and chapters that have gone above and beyond to demonstrate excellence in their work. This issue of Health Facilities Management recognizes those award winners and shares their stories so readers might be inspired by their examples (see the cover story here).

We interview two well-known and exemplary “rock stars” of the facilities management field: Daniel Campbell and George “Skip” Smith, whose vision and leadership have greatly benefited ASHE and countless members. We also salute the winners of the 2024 Energy to Care® Awards, who together are paving the way for a more sustainable future for our field. And, on the subject of energy management, we meet the team behind Boston Medical Center Health System, the winner of this year’s Excellence in Health Care Facility Management Award, who have established the nation’s first net-zero energy-ready behavioral health facility. 

If you attended the conference, I hope you returned to your facilities reinvigorated and refocused on your mission. I encourage you to engage with your chapter leadership and maintain open communication with the ASHE Advisory Board representatives, sharing both your triumphs and challenges as partners on our journey. We are here to serve!