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CERTIFICATIONS:                                                     Exhibit 31.1
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I, Daniel P. McCartney, Chief Executive Officer, certify that:

     1.  I have reviewed this quarterly report on Form 10-Q of Healthcare
         Services Group, Inc.;

     2.  Based on my knowledge, this quarterly report does not contain any
         untrue statement of a material fact or omit to state a material fact
         necessary to make the statements made, in light of the circumstances
         under which such statements were made, not misleading with respect to
         the periods covered by this quarterly report;

     3.  Based on my knowledge, the financial statements, and other financial
         information included in this quarterly report, fairly present in all
         material respects the financial condition, results of operations and
         cash flows of the registrant as of, and for, the periods presented in
         this quarterly report;

     4.  The registrant's other certifying officer and I are responsible for
         establishing and maintaining disclosure controls and procedures ( as
         defined in Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e)) and internal
         control over financial reporting ( as defined in Exchange Act Rules
         13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f)) for the registrant and have;

         a) designed such disclosure controls and procedures, or caused such
            disclosure controls and procedures to be designed under our
            supervision, to ensure that material information relating to the
            registrant, including its consolidated subsidiaries, is made known
            to us by others within those entities, particularly during the
            period in which this quarterly report is being prepared;

         b) designed such internal control over financial reporting, or caused
            such internal control over financial reporting to be designed under
            our supervision, to provide reasonable assurance regarding the
            reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial
            statements for external purposes in accordance with generally
            accepted accounting principles;

         c) evaluated the effectiveness of the registrant's disclosure controls
            and procedures and presented in this quarterly report our
            conclusions about the effectiveness of the disclosure controls and
            procedures, as of the end of the period covered by this report based
            on such evaluation and;

         d) disclosed in this report any change in the registrant's internal
            control over financial reporting that occurred during the
            registrant's most recent fiscal quarter that has materially
            affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, the
            registrant's internal control over financial reporting; and

     5.  The registrant's other certifying officer and I have disclosed, based
         on our most recent evaluation of internal control over financial
         reporting, to the registrant's auditors and the audit committee of
         registrant's Board of Directors.

         a) all significant deficiencies and material weaknesses in the design
            or operation of internal control over financial reporting which are
            reasonably likely to adversely affect the registrant's ability to
            record, process, summarize and report financial information; and

         b) any fraud, whether or not material, that involves management or
            other employees who have a significant role in the registrant's
            internal control over financial reporting

Date: October 21, 2005
                                                        /s/ Daniel P. McCartney
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                                                        Daniel P. McCartney
                                                        Chief Executive Officer