The Healthcare Environmental Hygiene Professional (HEHP) Certification: consistent training and ongoing audits to ensure skills and competencies

In healthcare, cleaning and disinfection is not housekeeping it is infection prevention and control. That is a completely different focus. It becomes a matter of life and death. Cross contamination, different physical environments and levels of patient care, regulatory requirements. Then you consider the number of medical devices and equipment room turnover times. Healthcare cleaning is a highly specialized discipline. Every room turnover, every high-touch surface, and every product choice can either break the chain of infection or keep it going. Doing this work well takes specialized knowledge, from pathogen transmission and biofilm to disinfectant label requirements and protocols that change from a patient room to an ICU to an operating room. It requires training.

Everyone Who Cleans Needs Training

Environmental services professionals are not the only people who clean in healthcare. Nurses, patient care technicians, sterile processing teams, facilities staff, and contracted cleaning teams all clean and disinfect surfaces and equipment every day. HEHP is open to all of them, so everyone responsible for cleaning and disinfection works from the same standard.

Three Tiers, One Consistent Standard

Many team members have no formal healthcare cleaning training at all. HEHP creates consistency with a three-tier program built around the environments of care:

• Basic – non-specialty patient rooms, common areas, and basic exam spaces
• Intermediate – ICUs, isolation rooms, transplant units, and special pathogen scenarios
• Advanced – Emergency departments, operating rooms, sterile processing, and other critical care areas

Developed by EVS leaders, infection preventionists, nurses, and industry thought leaders, the curriculum turns current science into practical, repeatable workflows.

Onsite, Hands-On, and Ongoing

HEHP is not an online module or a one-time class. It is onsite, hands-on training delivered in your facility, where your team works. It begins with an onsite audit, so training targets your exsiting gaps. Our team then delivers classroom instruction paired with hands-on skills training in real patient care environments.

Learning is verified, not assumed. Participants complete both a written test and a practicum to demonstrate they have mastered the skills. After training, we support your team as they put those skills into practice, and semiannual onsite visits reinforce the ongoing use of the skills trained as your team advances through all three levels.

Training is critical. When everyone who cleans is trained to the same standard, and skills are verified and reinforced, patients are safer.