BEST PRACTICES
Inova Fairfax EVS Team Achieves One Year Injury Free
Inside the EVS safety practices that kept 2.2M work hours injury free.
Across 17 hospitals, 781 Crothall EVS associates and managers completed more than 2.2 million work hours without a single recordable injury. In a health system managing high patient volumes, diverse facility layouts and ongoing workforce pressures, sustaining a full year injury-free reflects a disciplined safety culture built on consistency, coaching and shared accountability.
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365
With No OSHA Reported Injuries
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2
Safe Work Hours Completed
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0
Workdays Lost among 781 associates
A Disciplined Safety Culture Grounded in Consistency, Coaching and Shared Accountability.
The impact of a safety-first EVS culture across 17 hospitals
These achievements reflect a culture where safety is a core value—reinforced through daily routines, real-time coaching and technology that keeps teams aligned and gives leaders better visibility into emerging trends.
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Stronger team pride, consistency and confidence reflected in sustained safety engagement
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Zero injury-related absences deliver lower operational disruption and greater staffing stability
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A scalable model for EVS safety excellence that performs consistently across large, complex systems
Daily routines that protect Environmental Services teams
The success at Inova Fairfax is anchored in the Crothall EVS Safety Model—a structured, repeatable approach designed to reduce variation and strengthen the leading indicators that drive injury prevention. Core elements of this model include:
- Daily safety huddles: A consistent safety rhythm that builds awareness at the start of every shift.
- “Teachable moments” for real-time coaching: Crothall supervisors address risk the moment they see it, reinforcing correct
behaviors before issues escalate. - Regular training refreshers: Competency-based reinforcement keeps associates confident in equipment use and safe work
routines. - Peer accountability: Associates watch out for each other—an expectation embedded across all Crothall EVS programs.
- Milestone recognition: Celebrating small wins helps sustain momentum and keeps safety top of mind.
- Weekly leader trend reviews: Crothall leaders monitor leading indicators and safety trends proactively, resolving concerns
early and maintaining program stability.
Together, these practices reduce variability, strengthen daily habits and help teams remain consistent under pressure.
Why EVS safety matters more than ever in today’s hospitals
Hospitals remain among the most injury-prone workplaces, driven by higher turnover, expanded duties, complex cleaning requirements and increased patient volumes. In this environment, unstructured or reactive safety approaches can quickly lead to disruptions, lost workdays and staffing instability.
The Inova Fairfax results show that a structured, repeatable model creates predictable safety outcomes, especially in large, high-demand systems.
Replicable EVS actions for other teams
The Crothall approach used at Inova Fairfax offers a clear roadmap for hospitals seeking to reverse injury increases and strengthen team performance:
- Build daily safety touchpoints into the workflow.
- Treat training as ongoing, not one-time.
- Address unsafe practices in real time through coaching.
- Celebrate small wins to reinforce high-performance habits.
- Review safety trends frequently to prevent incidents.
These actions create a stable, predictable safety environment and reduce operational disruption.
Hospitals feel the pressure of higher turnover and changing demands. What keeps teams safe is a consistent, structured safety model that doesn’t waver as conditions shift. Inova’s results show what becomes possible when daily habits and coaching are prioritized.
Judy Clark Safety Manager, Crothall Healthcare