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Well we are in full swing for 2017 and as usual with Oklahoma weather we can’t decide if it is still winter or spring. The temps are swinging from one end to the other and the trees are super confused and starting to bud out. I am not sure about you but I am ready for the spring and the weather to stay warm.
I need to send out a big thank you to Casey Miranda. Casey is now our past president and with his guidance last year the OAHE was able to reach the ASHE Platinum Elite status. Thank you Casey for all of your hard work and your leadership last year! You have left some big shoes for me to fill!!
One of the big items that we have been working on so far this year is our new website. If you have not seen it yet, please take some time to get to the new website and create a login for the website www.oahe.org. A huge thank you goes out to our partners at CMP Management who have been helping our group with financial management, ASHE paperwork, setting up our meetings and conferences, and also getting the new website up and running for us.
In January we had a wonderful winter meeting at the Oklahoma Hospital Association office in OKC. We had an amazing turnout and I don’t think that anyone was disappointed in the presentations or the speakers. We had a great team of Integris Health presenters talking about a wide range of items. The topics for that meeting were; Emergency Management, CMS Code and Earthquake HVA. Mr. James DeHaven, System Disaster Response & Recovery Specialist, Environmental Health & Safety with Integris Health spoke about Emergency Management and Earthquake HVA in the morning. After a wonderful lunch we had Troy Branstetter, Director – Integris Health Edmond and David Foss, Systems Director of Facilities, Planning & Construction for Integris Health speak about OSDH proposed rule changes to Title 310. All of our presenters had wonderful things to say, helped all of us learn some new items to take back to our facilities, and kept us all engaged in the presentations. Thank you to all of them for speaking to the group. Also, we had one of our best vendor members step up and sponsor the event. A huge thank you goes out to Dana Andrews and the rest of the team at Oklahoma Chiller for sponsoring the winter meeting. We couldn’t do it without our sponsors so please thank the Oklahoma Chiller team when you can.
Coming up in April we will have our spring conference. We have heard the voices of our organization and we are trying something new this year. We will not be having our conference at the Biltmore in OKC this year. Instead we are meeting at the Embassy Suites and Convention Center in Norman. This will give our group and our conference a new feel, some nice rooms to relax in and a nice meeting space to learn and network. At the spring conference we will have our region 7 representative Tony Suarez from Midland Memorial Hospital in Midland Texas speaking about ASHE and giving us an ASHE update. We will have Sean Goings, President at DAC, Inc. in to speak, we will have Dave Dagenais (everyone knows and loves Dave) in to speak, we will have Oklahoma Chiller speaking, and we are working on many more presentations for the event. I would like to encourage you to invite your infection prevention officers to attend the meeting as we plan to have presentations geared towards infection prevention during our conference. We will also have our annual tradeshow for our vendor members to come and setup a booth to talk to everyone about their products and services. We are planning an evening outing for the group and want to see everyone attending that outing. This will be an exciting, educational, and enjoyable conference. The conference will be April 17th, 18th, and 19th we will have a reception the evening of the 17th, presentations and tradeshow on the 18th, our evening outing the night of the 18th, and a half day of presentations on the 19th. Please make plans to attend!
I want to take a moment to thank all of our sponsors, we have a great group of vendor sponsors that help to keep this organization going and without them we would be struggling to make it.
Also thank you to the board members both current and past who allow me to reach out and ask questions, get advice, and learn from your knowledge and experiences!!
Scott Johnson, CHC, CET
2017 OAHE President
Director of Healthcare Solutions
York Electronic Systems, Inc.
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ASHE is asking all OAHE members to participate in the important ASHE Energy and Water Survey, which is critical for setting the EPA ENERGY STAR scoring models. The data will be anonymously shared with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency with the goals of:
- Updating the ENERGY STAR 1-100 score models for both General Medical & Surgical Hospitals and Medical Office Buildings
- Expanding to new ENERGY STAR 1-100 score models for other health care space types
- Evaluating the potential to develop a 1-100 score for water efficiency
CEUs/Contact Hours: ASHE will provide 2 continue education contact hours (0.2 CEUs) per complete survey, which can be used toward renewal of your CHFM or CHC certification. Each participant can earn a maximum of 10 continuing education contact hours (1.0 CEUs). The success of ASHE's effort will largely depend on the response rate, so please ask your facility manager(s) and chapter members to set aside 60 minutes to complete this important survey. The new deadline to complete/submit the Energy and Water survey is April 28, 2017, and a webinar recording is available to help explain the survey and answer frequently asked questions on ashe.org/energysurvey.
If you are currently using Portfolio Manager to track energy and water usage at your facilities, the data can be shared from the Portfolio Manager account with ASHE, which allows you to skip sections of the survey. You will still need to provide additional operational characteristics about your facility. |
