It wasn’t until the late nineteenth century that scientists and doctors embraced the germ theory of disease—the idea that people became ill from exposure to microorganisms like bacteria and viruses. Before then, most people believed that sickness was caused by miasma, or poisonous air. Although early scientists may have missed the root cause of disease, they weren’t wrong that air quality has a strong role to play in people’s health—and that’s especially true in healthcare settings.
Poor air quality can put you in the hospital, and when you’re there, the last thing you want is to get sicker. While “bad air” alone doesn’t make people sick, the air in a hospital can pick up all sorts of pathogens and irritants spread by patients or visitors, chemical contaminants from medical equipment or cleaning products, or even outdoor air pollution.
When these substances get into the air, they can wreak havoc on a patient’s compromised immune system and negatively affect their health—and it’s up to reliable HVAC (and ventilation in particular) systems to minimize the airborne risks to patient health. In this blog, we’ll explore how modern hospital HVAC systems work to enhance patient safety:
Why Hospital Indoor Air Quality Matters
The World Health Organization has found that air pollution is the world’s largest single environmental health risk. In a hospital, a patient’s health is already at risk, and without adequate filtration and ventilation systems, staff and visitors can more easily—and inadvertently—pass pathogens along to patients and vice versa.
A wide range of factors can contribute to poor indoor air quality in a hospital, including:
- Low ceilings
- Hinged doors
- Irregular cleaning
- Overcrowding
- Poorly maintained and inefficient ventilation systems
Hospitals need to be built thoughtfully to avoid air quality issues, and that includes the design of their ventilation systems. The latest advances in filtration and ventilation technologies makes it easier than ever for HVAC systems in medical facilities to ensure better patient outcomes and minimize staff and visitors’ exposure to pathogens and pollutants that can put them in the hospital in turn.
Exploring HVAC and Ventilation Solutions for Hospitals
The most important capability of the HVAC systems in a medical facility is its ability to move air throughout the building, filter out its contaminants, and ensure fresh, clean air in the most sensitive areas. In places like operating rooms, this need is constant and consistent. Frequent and effective air exchange in operating rooms, for example, is crucial for maintaining sterile conditions and preventing contamination—with the typical OR aiming to replace the air in the room up to 25 or even 30 times per hour!
Hospital HVAC systems can ensure better air quality and reduce the risk of worse health outcomes with filtration and ventilation technologies such as:
HEPA Filters
High-Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters are highly effective in removing bacteria and fine particulate matter from the air. They can capture at least 99.97% of airborne particles with diameters of 0.3 microns or more. These filters are excellent at removing dust, pollen, mold, and bacteria from the air and can also capture larger viruses.
While HEPA filters, like any filtration technology, have their limits, they are especially useful in operating rooms, isolation rooms, and intensive care units.
MERV-Rated Filters
Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value (MERV) filters rated 13 or above are especially useful for general patient care areas, administrative offices, and outpatient clinics. Compared to HEPA filters, MERV filters are more cost-effective, but less capable of handling small viruses. As of 2021, OSHA has required filters rated MERV 13 or above in all healthcare facilities’ hair handler systems.
Ultraviolet Germicidal Irradiation
Cutting-edge HVAC systems in hospitals can use short-wavelength UV light to inactivate airborne microorganisms, reducing microbial load in high-risk areas. UVGI light fixtures can be installed within air ducts, where they disinfect incoming air before it can be distributed throughout the building. They can also be installed on the ceilings of rooms, where they disinfect the air as it circulates.
Negative Pressure Rooms
Air generally flows from areas of high pressure to low pressure, and hospitals can and often do exploit this to help with operating room air exchanges—maintaining positive pressure in the OR ensures air flows from the clean room into the dirty hallways or air capture systems.
However, negative pressure can also be exploited in certain conditions. Hospital HVAC systems can also maintain negative pressure rooms, also known as isolation rooms, that quarantine patients with especially infectious diseases or with severely compromised immune systems.
Energy Recovery Ventilators
With filtration and ventilation being such essential concerns for hospitals, day in, day out, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, the energy demands of HVAC systems in healthcare facilities can quickly add up. Energy recovery ventilators (ERVs) minimize the need for heating or cooling by transferring heat and moisture from exhaust air to incoming fresh air, improving efficiency and reducing strain on the system while also reducing energy costs.
Chiller Systems Service: Trusted for Hospital HVAC System Replacements
Even in the days of the miasma theory of disease, doctors understood the importance of clean air for patients, visitors, and staff, even if they didn’t fully understand the root causes of poor indoor air quality’s effect on people’s health and well-being. The advances of germ theory in the nineteenth century and the past decades of innovation in climate control technology have made hospitals even more well-equipped to protect patient health.
However, older healthcare facilities can still struggle to measure up to modern air quality standards. While HVAC systems are only one piece of the puzzle, they are an especially important piece. Chiller Systems Service has extensive experience helping healthcare facilities across the Colorado Front Range upgrade, retrofit, or replace aging HVAC and ventilation systems to continue ensuring patient health—with minimal downtime to critical systems.
Reach out today to schedule service for your hospital’s HVAC system.