Course helps busy healthcare professionals sharpen skills related to workforce safety, emergency management, infection prevention, and other hazardous situations

PLYMOUTH MEETING, PA—Healthcare safety, security, risk, and facility managers need the knowledge and skills to prepare them for hazards that threaten today's complex and chaotic healthcare environment, like those posed by Ebola and other natural and man-made agents. Recognizing the need to provide on-demand learning for busy healthcare environmental workers across the entire spectrum of healthcare, ECRI Institute has developed an online version of its nationally respected Center for Healthcare Environmental Management (CHEM) training course.

The certification course teaches compliance with standards from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, as well as the Joint Commission and others. Healthcare risk managers and occupational health safety professionals who take the course will gain the tools and resources needed to better protect workers and patients from the hazards present in the everyday healthcare setting.

"This new online course gives participants all of the resources offered in the classroom and gives them the convenience to do it on their own time," says Luke Petosa, MSc, HEM, HEM-CC, director of the Center for Education and Training, ECRI Institute.

This 21-part course, which can be taken over 12 months, addresses essential areas of workplace safety, including emergency management, accident investigations, hazard recognition, industrial hygiene, environmental infection control, and security, along with their associated compliance standards. While completion of the entire course and successfully passing the examination is required to earn certification, individual courses are also available on an ad hoc basis if certification is not the goal.

Upon passing the examination, which can be completed at any time within one year of course registration, students are certified as Healthcare Environmental Managers and may use the professional designation "HEM." This earned certification is recognized nationwide by hospitals, health systems, insurance providers, consultants, professional organizations, the U.S. Public Health Service, the Indian Health Service, and others.

Participants will join more than 1,600 HEM certified individuals who have taken the course over the past 15 years. "The CHEM course provided information that is very relevant to current practices and current events. The instructors are excellent and willing to offer advice," says Johnny Tolbert, HEM, Children's National Medical Center, Washington, DC.

New for 2015, the HEM certification courses have been approved for up to 40 California State Nursing contact hours by the provider, Debora Simmons, who is approved by the California Board of Registered Nursing, Provider Number CEP 13677.

"[The CHEM course] allows me to show our executive leadership and 21,000 employees that my staff and I are committed to furthering our education and continuously sharpening our skills. [The course] helps ensure that in all of our healthcare facilities we are striving to provide the safest environment for all of our employees, visitors, and patients," states Eric A. Wagner, HEM, COHC, senior director, safety and industrial hygiene, Geisinger Health System.

For more information, visit the HEM website, education@ecri.org; call (610) 825-6000, ext. 5462; or write to us at 5200 Butler Pike, Plymouth Meeting, PA, 19462.

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About ECRI Institute
ECRI Institute (www.ecri.org), a nonprofit organization, dedicates itself to bringing the discipline of applied scientific research to healthcare to discover which medical procedures, devices, drugs, and processes are best to enable improved patient care. As pioneers in this science for more than 45 years, ECRI Institute marries experience and independence with the objectivity of evidence-based research. Strict conflict-of-interest guidelines ensure objectivity. ECRI Institute is designated an Evidence-based Practice Center by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. ECRI Institute PSO is listed as a federally certified Patient Safety Organization by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Find ECRI Institute on Facebook (www.facebook.com/ECRIInstitute) and on Twitter (www.twitter.com/ECRI_Institute).

For more information, contact:
Laurie Menyo, Director of Public Relations
(610) 825-6000, ext. 5310
lmenyo@ecri.org